Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

This week, we have been learning about Job for our scripture study. The main question that has been asked is, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" This is a question asked by everyone. It has been used to try to pull people away from their religious beliefs. I think it will always be asked and used in this way. The truth is, we do not always know why we have to go through though things. All we can do is trust that we will get through it better than we were. 

There was a time when I sat in my bishop's office and asked why I had to go through so many hard things in my life. He had no answers for me. It is just a part of life. We knew when we fought to come to Earth and follow Christ's plan that we would be tried. This was not the answer I was looking for because I really wanted a "real reason" for why I had to go through one more thing that I was not sure I could handle. It wasn't until a few years later that I started to find answers. Now they seem to be everywhere. 

In Sunday School today, we got deeper into this conversation. There was one quote that hit me from Spencer W. Kimball that really hit me. In 1972 he said:

"If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith.

"If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given to the doer of good, there could be no evil - al would do good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, only satanic controls."