Are you anxious or feel unjustly confined?
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Maybe we have felt some of these feelings over the past four months and still feel them. I know I do.
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When I’m told, I have to wear a mask, stand six feet apart, walk down a particular aisle in the grocery store, or confined to stay away from my family and friends.
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It’s been a roller coaster, and it’s brought a lot of irritation to the table. One of the most frustrating things for me is returning to church services with restrictions.
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I understand if we don’t set forth the best example, we will be criticized by the world. I understand all eyes are on the Latter-day Saints and what we are going to do.
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Being criticized by the world is nothing new to members of The Church. It’s never going to stop, and it’s only going to get worse. Are you prepared?
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I think of Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Lyman Wight, Alexander McRae, Caleb Baldwin, and Sidney Rigdon at Liberty Jail. They were unjustly confined for four and a half months!
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During the hardest conditions, the Prophet and his companions were imprisoned in a stone dungeon measuring 14 by 14 feet, with a ceiling just over 6 feet high. Only two small barred windows allowed light and air into the cell.
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I have no way to really compare my physical experience with those six men; However, I can compare my spiritual experience. It’s through the growth I’ve made in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the past four months.
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The government confined us to the most extreme measures any of us have seen in our lifetime. Even so, I still don’t want to know how those six men in Liberty Jail felt.
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How did Joseph Smith feel? I compare my experience to Joseph, while he looked to the Savior.
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Joseph learned that his sufferings were still not comparable to those of the Savior, as the Spirit whispered to him: “The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?” He was taught that in the end “all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.”
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The Savior said, . . . “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake; rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward”