Neal A. Maxwell Quotes on Pain (2 Quotes)

Some mistakenly misread the mercy and graciousness of God. For instance, some partial believers are always scolding God, or disregarding Him, because of the observable and lamentable consequences of our misuse of God's gift to us of moral agency. It is as if a teenage son, given his first car, promptly had an accident with resulting pain, suffering, and expense, and the errant son then railed at his father for permitting the suffering resulting from the son's misuse of the gift of the automobile. Granted, in defense of the analogy, mortal parents ought not to give youngsters automobiles too soon, and then only when they have provided wise counsel, driver training, and so on. But there still comes a time when, if they are ever to drive alone, trained teenagers must be left alone at the wheel. The principle is the same with us in the second estate.

Listen to these wounds of pain put in the form of questions to me by a young woman who had had two abortions 'I wonder about the spirits of those I had aborted, if they were there, if they were hurt I was under three months each time, but a mother feels life before she feels movement.' 'I wonder if they are lost and alone' 'I wonder if they will ever have a body' 'I wonder if I will ever have a chance again to bring those spirits back as mine' Alas, brothers and sisters, 'wickedness never was happiness' (Alma 4110).