The story of Joseph, as portrayed in this Come Follow Me lesson, is closely connected with confronting trials and overcoming adversity. Today, while it\u2019s hard to believe that most of us face adversity like that of Joseph, I suspect that our trials still have a significant impact on our lives. Perhaps how we react to trials and adversity are relative to our experiences, how hard it is to get by in life, and the amount of suffering around us. We may not be sold into slavery and face the thread of starvation because of drought, but we do suffer when we are mistreated and face poverty, to say nothing of myriad other trials.<\/p>\n
Perhaps then we can learn something from adversity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Like the words in the Bible, 19th century LDS poetry addresses the suffering and trials that members faced at that time, often seeing positive support from God to help through trials. I like this poem, published in England in the Church\u2019s Millennial Star. The anonymous author sees the silver lining as evidence that God is helping us.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Author unknown<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1845<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In our trials we often want and need the Lord to help, guide and inspire us. I like the following poem, told from Christ\u2019s perspective. In the end it\u2019s unique perspective suggests that the guide the Lord gives us builds a relationship that keeps everyone from being lonely.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
by Claire Stewart Boyer<\/p>\n
1936<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This section of the lesson is clearly a reference to Joseph\u2019s experience with Potiphar\u2019s wife. But our need to flee temptation is often much more mundane, and involves simply being strong enough to resist, rather than exactly flee. In another unusual perspective, the following poem is a prayer for the strength missionaries need to avoid temptation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
by Mary Elizabeth Humphries<\/p>\n
1914<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Like many things in life, we can avoid problems by how we prepare. And a primary strategy for preparing involves relying on the Lord to help us prepare. While much of our poetry does talk about preparing, often it\u2019s preparing for the second coming, or for gathering to the body of the Saints. While this poem is about preparing for the last days, it also suggests (in the 4th stanza) that we need to prepare for the trials of \u201cthat revolution it shall undergo, \/ The great restitution from evil and woe.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
by R.B.<\/p>\n
1838<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The story of Joseph, as portrayed in this Come Follow Me lesson, is closely connected with confronting trials and overcoming adversity. Today, while it\u2019s hard to believe that most of us face adversity like that of Joseph, I suspect that our trials still have a significant impact on our lives. Perhaps how we react to trials and adversity are relative to our experiences, how hard it is to get by in life, and the amount of suffering around us. We may not be sold into slavery and face the thread of starvation because of drought, but we do suffer when we are mistreated and face poverty, to say nothing of myriad other trials. Perhaps then we can learn something from adversity. The Lord will be with me in my adversity. Like the words in the Bible, 19th century LDS poetry addresses the suffering and trials that members faced at that time, often seeing positive support from God to help through trials. I like this poem, published in England in the Church\u2019s Millennial Star. The anonymous author sees the silver lining as evidence that God is helping us. There’s a Bow in the Cloud Author unknown Children of earth, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2895,2906,2462,1323],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-come-follow-me-currculum","category-old-testament","category-poetry-arts","category-sunday-school-lesson-old-testament"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52939"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52947,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52939\/revisions\/52947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}