In This Life I Shall Have Joy

My youngest child just turned 8, & I can hardly wrap my mind around it!

I remember 8 years ago at one of my last doctor appointments, a lady looked at me & said encouragingly, "It is ALL worth it!” She did not know I had done this 5 other times, but I said thank you! And thought to myself, “Oh, believe me, I know!”

After my appointment I headed to the store & there was a lady dealing with a screaming toddler nearby & as she walked passed me, she said, “Do you see what you're getting yourself into?” & we both laughed. And in my mind I was thinking, "Oh, believe me, I know!”

Both ladies were right!

When Adam & Eve’s eyes were opened “because of [their] transgression,” the Holy Ghost bears witness of Jesus Christ’s redeeming power. Adam realized that “in this life I shall have joy…” (Moses 5:10)

We SHALL have joy! Even in our hard times. Even after we fall.

Eve then brings up her realization: “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed” (11)

Having seed brings joy!

As well as sorrow.

Which they were about to discover.

Cause despite their best efforts, their son believed Satan’s lies, murdered his brother, & entered into evil secret combinations, thus leading astray his descendants.

Ah, agency.

Did Adam & Eve feel like failures? Did they know their greatest joys would also be their greatest sorrows? Did they wish to go back to their naive state in the Garden? Was choosing the fruit worth it, now that they knew what they were getting themselves into?

It was worth it! Once their eyes were opened, why would they go back? Going back to conditions of the Garden would do nothing for them! This path, this “fall,” though much harder, would bring them to greater heights! Heights unimaginable. Because of “the joy of our redemption” (11). Because of Jesus Christ!

Parenting is hard! We’re only shaping human beings, after all! The love for my kids is the most tender, fiercest love. They are my everything. The sacrifices made to raise them are a drop in the bucket. Family is everything. Love is everything. This is God’s plan!

Yes, choosing this, I have gotten myself into something big!

Big sorrows.

But bigger joys!

Forever worth it.