Ill Winds Fill My Sails

1 Nephi 5:8

And she spake, saying: Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath commanded my husband to flee into the wilderness; yea, and I also know of a surety that the Lord hath protected my sons, and delivered them out of the hands of Laban, and given them power whereby they could accomplish the thing which the Lord hath commanded them. And after this manner of language did she speak.

Sariah's testimony was based on outcomes. This is shaky ground for a testimony. At first, she lost faith in God because she thought He had not protected her sons, and now her faith in God was stronger because He had indeed protected them. What would happen to her faith when the next thing goes wrong?

I may want God to protect me from every problem and every danger, but the fact is, He will not protect me constantly. I have to experience adversity and trials. If He kept me from every difficulty, this life would be wasted. I would return to Him weaker than when I left Him. This life is a probation, meaning a test of my willingness and ability to stay on the right course even when people and circumstances try to get me to deviate. If God protected me from every ill wind, I would never fill my sails. 

God could have protected Adam and Eve from the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit by removing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from the Garden of Eden. Our first parents could have lived in the Garden of Eden in innocence forever, but that would have frustrated God's plan. And Adam and Eve would have gotten very bored very quickly.

I don't want God to protect me from every little thing. I do want Him to protect me from everything that is not in His plan for me. And I'm pretty sure He is already doing that. I surely want His protection, but more importantly, I want His grace and strength to enable me to endure everything He does not protect me from.

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