Be Patient

The Lord has told us in D&C 24:8
"Be patient in thine afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days."

Often it is very difficult to be patient, especially now with the unemployment rates being so high, the inability to get a job, or if you have one or two or three, to earn enough to put food on the table and keep a roof over your head and the heads of your family as well as keep them healthy.

Elder L. Lionel Kendrick of the seventy opens his talk "Strength during Struggles" with
"Life is not always easy to live, but the opportunity to do so is a blessing beyond comprehension. In the process of living we will face struggles, many of which will cause us to suffer and to experience pain. Many people will suffer in personal struggles, while others will suffer as they watch their loved ones in pain."

Frequently we pray for those who are in need without realizing that the Lord needs to work through others to help them, therefore, you could very well be in the most optimal position to help someone if you only allow yourself to be a tool in His hands. Being encouraged to think of oneself as a tool in anyone's hands may be and is offensive to some people. However, if one imagines themselves not as a tool and instead as what they actually are, a person providing a service for their neighbor, then the words become that much more powerful and inspirational.

Elder Kendrick continues in his talk,
"Some of our struggles involve making decisions, while others are a result of the decisions we have made. Some of our struggles result from choices others make that affect our lives. We cannot always control everything that happens to us in this life, but we can control how we respond. Many struggles come as problems and pressures that sometimes cause pain. Others come as temptations, trials, and tribulations.

Yet struggles are a part of the sacred sanctification process. There are no soft or slothful ways to become sanctified to the point that we are prepared to live in the presence of the Savior. And there can be blessings in the burdens we bear. As a result of these struggles, our character becomes more Christlike.

Even though these experiences may cause pain, suffering, and sorrow, we have this absolute assurance: “No pain suffered by man or woman upon the earth will be without its compensating effects if it be suffered in resignation and if it be met with patience” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, edited by Edward L. Kimball [1982], 168)....

....People respond to struggles in different ways. Some feel defeated and beaten down by the burdens they are called to bear. Many begin to blame others for their difficulties and defeats, and they fail to follow the counsel of the Lord. It is a natural tendency to seek the easy road on life’s journey and to become discouraged, filled with doubt, and even depressed when facing life’s struggles.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, then an Assistant to the Twelve, distinguished the difference in responses to difficulties: “The winds of tribulation, which blow out some men’s candles of commitment, only fan the fires of faith of [others]” (“Why Not Now?” Ensign, November 1974, 12)."

Rather than post the rest of his talk, I suggest looking it up and reading it. It's in the March 2002 issue of the Liahona.

Remember these words that God told to the Prophet Joseph Smith while he was imprisoned in Liberty Jail; "My son (or daughter), peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;" D&C 121:7