This morning I studied 1 Nephi 2:10-13. It always amazes me that people I meet are surprised at the fact that there are always opposites. There is always opposition in all things. It’s a law of nature! I learned in science class Isaac Newton’s law of motion. “For every action there is an equal and OPPOSITE reaction.” Everything has an opposite. Day and night. Hot and cold. Spring and fall. Summer and winter. sleep and awake. It’s everywhere. I’m pretty sure I’ve noticed this since elementary school. I think I have also noticed that both are good for us. Right now I am struggling to get good sleep. I can see that it is healthy for me to have sleep time and awake time and I long for more of that sleep time!
Just like sleep vs. awake, just like breathing in and breathing out, we need oppositions in spiritual and emotional ways as well. Everyday I am met with students who claim they want that “A” the easy way. Everyday I am faced with wanting those fat cells to disappear with a magic pill. Every day I think we all wish, at least for a moment, that life would be like some utopia where there was no misery and nothing resisted our whims from moment to moment. But if that was the world we lived in, would we even know what happiness and contentment were? With messiness comes beauty. Roses come with thorns. Snowflakes come with cold. All opposite come in sets or in pairs.
Like magnets – come in north and south poles. You pick up one you get the other. Or sticks. If you pick up one end of the stick, you get the other end too. You can’t avoid it. They come together.
So when every coin we find in life comes up tails and we feel discouraged and sad, we can remember that every coin has two sides and flip the coin. That’s when we discover joy. Instead of lamenting, “Why is this happening?” We can boldly move forward asking, “what can I learn from this situation or experience?”
Really, because God created and allows opposites in this world we can understand joy, peace, beauty, satisfaction, warmth and many other wonderful things, all of which we would not know if there where no opposition. No virtue can exist without the corresponding evils.
I am thankful to have a quiet evening at home.
Resigning as the General Manager of the Universe 