Last summer I got my first bee-sting.I was standing outside with a group of kids. All of a sudden my arm started to sting with pain and I looked down to find a stinger in my forearm as the bee flew away! When the kids saw what happened they started to show on their faces how terrible a bee sting is! They were talking loudly and energetically, saying a word over and over in Albanian, which I took to mean bee. I remember their worried faces as they found out I have been hurt. The next week when I saw the kids they immediately grabbed my arm to see how it was! They remembered! and wanted to see if I was ok. They kept checking until it was healed. I still have a mark to remember.
But wow this experience really stuck with me!
Two parts of this story stick out to me:
1. They were so concerned about me and made sure I was alright, regardless of the language barrier. They remembered I had been hurt and reached out to me at every stage.
2. They reacted this way because they themselves had been stung before. They experienced the very thing I was going through. And because they had been through it before, they were able to empathize and care about me...
In life, we often are handed things that hurt us. Maybe even things we feel we didn't deserve, or that doesn't reflect upon us as a person; just like my little bee sting. However, because we get "stung" in life, we know how it feels when we later see someone else with the same wound.
Because of our hurtful past experiences, we are given the gift of empathy.
Regardless of whether we had someone to understand when we ourselves were stung, we can reach out in love and understanding to those who are in that situation now. At any and every stage you can empathize and be there for them.
The one who has the capacity to help each and every one of us, in Any and Every trial we face, is our Savior Jesus Christ. In the garden of Gethsemane, the night before he was taken to be crucified, he felt each of our pains, sins, sicknesses, distresses, Everything. He did this so He could perfectly understand how to comfort us and help us overcome it. He is our perfect example and healer.
Alma 7:11-12 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
Whether you believe all this is from the hand of God, as I do, or not.. life experiences, especially the hard ones, are a gift. And the empathy we gain is to be used to help others in their lives. Many times, as we reach out to help another, we ourselves find a measure of peace and healing too.
So don't forget your bee stings or let them turn you bitter, recognize and use them as the gift they are.
Doctrine and Covenants 122:7-8 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
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