Tight like a dish

In my study of the Book of Mormon, one of my favorite books is Ether.  One statement has always caused me to reflect.  The Lord is instructing the brother of Jared in building the barges they will use to cross the ocean. He describes the barges by saying they were "tight like a dish".  I have always wondered why that is repeated so many times in this chapter.  After much contemplation this last week I think I have come to one possible scenario.  I think the brother of Jared was trying to teach us something. I think he was trying to tell us that as we cross the oceans in our life that it is not always going to be easy sailing.  There are going to be rough waters that will toss us here and there.  There are going to be times where we are literally plunged deep into the ocean.  We will be buried by things along our journey.  We will be swallowed by the water all around us.  We will think that we will never surface again.  However, we are tight like a dish.  I remember when I was a kid we would play in the river or the pool and we would take a ball and put it under the water and sit on it or hold it between our legs. It would stay under the water for a little while and then shoot out from under you and come flying to the top of the water.  It was tight like a dish.  No mater how many times the ball was buried in the water it always shot to the top of the water.  We are like that ball.  No matter how many times the waves of life crash down on us and bury us deep in the water we will come shooting to the top of the water.  I love the fact that the waves that push us down under the water are also the exact thing that push us to where we want to go.  Without the storm pushing the waves which in turn push us down under the water, we would never move forward. It is the storm that moves us closer to the desired destination.  I know this is true in my life.  I can see that during the hardest trials is when I made the biggest push towards the person I was meant to become and made the  fastest strides in the direction I wanted to go.  The storm which can sometimes be terrifying especially when we stay down deep under the water is a necessary and much needed step in our lives. The storms are scary but without them our progress would be stagnant.  We can't move forward without them.

I am so grateful for all the things I have learned from the Book of Mormon.  I finished reading it this week.  Everytime I read it I get a powerful witness of my Lord and Savior.  I am profoundly grateful for his sacrifice for me.  I know that his power sustains me when I am buried in the depths of the ocean.  I am however tight like a dish and will always resurface!

Some women are lost in the fire, some women are built from it

Refining (as in non-metallurgical uses) consists of purifying an impure material, in this case a metal. It is to be distinguished from other processes such as smelting and calcining in that those two involve a chemical change to the raw material, whereas in refining, the final material is usually identical chemically to the original one, only it is purer.

When I read this definition there were a couple of words  that jumped out at me.The first one was purifying an impure material.  The next was change and the last was purer.  

I think this summarizes what happens to us when we go through the refiners fire.  We are impure material.  Every. Single. One. of us is impure.  We make mistakes, we sin, we do wrong.  I am not saying that the reason we have to go through hard things is  because of sin, but sometimes it is.  Those times are extremely painful because we know that we could have avoided the pain we are in.  However, we are being changed and we can either embrace the change or fight against it.  

The Lord is purifying us.  He is taking the "raw material" and heating it up, hammering us to mold us into what he want us to be. We have to change and that happens through the refiners fire. I love this quote by James E. Faust:

The Divine Shepherd has a message of hope, strength, and deliverance for all. If  there were no night, we would not appreciate the day, nor could we see the stars and the vastness of the heavens. We must partake of the bitter with the sweet.   There is a divine purpose in the adversities we encounter every day. They 
prepare, they purge, they purify, and thus they bless.

One of the good things that comes from going through the refiners fire is that you are then able to succor those who may be going through their own.  I have found this to be true every time I have had a trial. The Lord will never leave us alone in our trial.  He has promised us that He won't give us more than we can handle.  Together with the Lord you can handle anything.  He knows that we have to be put through the refiners fire.  He wants us to change and become better.  He knows our worth.  He wants us to purify our-self and then go and help purify others.

So how do your survive the refiners fire?  How do you survive the pain of the intense heat you are being exposed to? I can only share what worked for me.




I have several experiences that I would consider refiners fire but many of them are too personal to share in such a public place.  I will share the most recent and that is my divorce.  I did not want the divorce, I did not ask for the divorce and frankly I would probably still be married right now if my husband of 21 years hadn't left.  I would have continued being miserable and unhappy and hating every part of my marriage.  I desperately wanted a two parent home for my children...so much so that I stayed in a miserable relationship for years.  I don't think I had any idea the kind of pain I was about to endure.  I was anguished and continued to allow him to hurt me by his actions.  I was in extreme pain.  I was forced to my knees by the pain.  I KNEW I could not do this without the Lord.  I developed a relationship with my Savior I did not know I could have.  He succored me.  He healed my broken heart. One experience in particular really changed my life.  About 6 years ago I was serving as the Stake Girls Camp Director.  One of the things I asked the Stake Youth Leaders to do was to memorize the Living Christ.  None of them did it however my 13 year old daughter and I did. It was a wonderful experience and I would recommend it to everyone!  We memorized it while we were driving in the car.  I had no idea that that one act inspired by the Lord for me so many years before would literally save my life.  One day while I was at work, I went in the bathroom and kneeled down on the floor and told the Lord how much I hated feeling like I did.  I didn't want the hate and anger and despair in my heart anymore.  He whispered to me "Recite the Living Christ".  So I did.  Every time I had a hateful, ugly thought I would begin again "As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ..." EVERY Time the ugliness would leave me, the darkness and despair would dissipate and the spirit of the Lord would envelop me.  This moment was the beginning of healing for me.  It was a SLOW process with many tears shed, many counseling appointments, many walks with my best friend which were more about the talk then the walk, and visits with my bishop. But, the healing began. I learned so much about myself.  It was a time of self discovery and becoming the woman I want to be. I have changed for the better. I have come through the refiners fire and am so much stronger than I ever thought possible.  Life is not perfect for me.  I have many struggles however I have a clearer vision of who I am and who I want to become. Would I wish this kind of pain on anyone?  No way! However I can see the Lord's purifying power in me.  He is molding me into what he wants me to become. He is forging me through the refiners fire and I know it will be worth it! I am  do glad that I was not lost in the fire.  I know that with the Lord by my side I can become all he wants me to. I am being built through my refiners fire.


This video shares an incredible message of the refiners fire.
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-11-010-the-refiners-fire?lang=eng