Pressure

My poor daughter developed a yeast rash in her diaper region.  I recognized it quickly and began treatment, but despite my efforts, it flared and spread rapidly and quickly turned into a staph infection. My poor, little girl has a very swollen and inflamed mass of infection that is obviously very painful for her.  As directed by her physician, I have added heat to pull the infection to the surface and then squeeze the sick and foul out, which causes my daughter a lot of pain, but in the end, offers her a lot of relief as it reduces the pressure and leaves her cleaner than before. 

I was thinking about this as I applied the pressure that caused her to cry and scream in pain, trying to comfort her as best I could that this was for the best.  This was to make her better. Then the thought struck me: this must be exactly what our Father in Heaven has to do for us.

Our bodies are carnal, and as such it takes in things of the carnal.  We can do what we can for the spirit and cleanse ourselves through the sacrament and repentance, but I feel the degeneration of society and the blatant moral degradation seep into our conscious and sometimes it festers within us, whether we are aware of it or not.  Sometimes we receive illnesses we are unaware of how they developed or how they were contracted, but none-the-less needs to be taken care of for fear of spreading.  I think in situations like these, our Father in Heaven applies the heat and the pressure, causing us pain, squeezing us and cleansing us like a refiners fire, to make us more whole.  Not that this would account for all trials, as we are tried for many different reasons, but I also believe like me trying only to help my daughter, our Father does the same. I had to add a little pain, but also gave her the continual reassurance I was there, with the reassurance it would be over soon.  I wasn’t trying to hurt her, only help her. 

Just as I care and love my daughter unconditionally, I know that my Father in Heaven too shows the same unfaltering love for me despite any situation I might be put in that seems to squeeze me to the point of pain.