Most every day I see a person that has some physical or mental disability. Some of them severe enough that the person struggles just to take a step. Some are blind or maimed in some other way. Then there are disabilities that represent bad choices by individuals, such as drug addictions, etc. When people see others with seemingly unfortunate conditions, they often repeat the common phrase, “There but for the grace of God go I.” I, too, when having seen another suffer such a misfortune, might have used that same phrase, until my understanding of God had deepened. I now might say, “There, but for my good fortune, go I.” God, or as I prefer to call Him, Heavenly Father, loves us all as His begotten spirit children. We are precious to Him, and He wants only the best for each of us. He is never to blame or responsible for circumstances that cause serious injuries or birth defects. Defects come about as a result of natural or earthly anomalies, not heavenly edicts. Serious injuries are usually caused by our own or someone else’s poor judgement or natural circumstance beyond our control, again not by some order from beyond our earth. We knew before we were assigned to mortality that there would be such challenges. Those challenges represent or partially represent our education in preparation for our next progressive assignment in the eternities. Regardless of our disabilities or any other earthly misfortune, we must do the best we can with whatever we have.
Some people believe that there is a direct and immediate correlation between our good deeds and blessings or vice versa. I have known good, happy and beautiful people who live in poverty and wealthy people who live miserable lives. If there were a direct correlation between deeds and blessing, we would all have the formula written on our palms. Earthly blessings related to earthly things are usually a result of our good fortune. Some of us have an opportunity to be well educated or to have employment opportunities, when young, that suited us well and provided a growth experience that has paid off in earthly blessings. Earthly blessings (things of the world) are not necessarily an antidote for a person’s misery or a recipe for happiness. Having lived a life longer than average, I feel qualified to say that blessings are related to our relationship to Heavenly Father only in an internal way. Happiness and that feeling that we are and have been blessed are based on how good we feel about ourselves spiritually.
I have been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for over fifty years and have been blessed to hold and to exercise the Priesthood in blessing people by prayer, as well as by the laying on of my hands with a companion Priesthood holder. I remember as a young and less experienced person, performing these blessing on those who were sick or just in need of a blessing from their Heavenly Father. I would often say in closing, “If it be thy will,” meaning God’s will! After I became better acquainted with Heavenly Father’s way, I realized that that statement was superfluous. Why? Because it is always His will for us to be blessed according to our desires. It is our lack of faith in whether we deserve or are worthy of such a blessing or our lack of faith that He will give it to us; these are the missing keys, the keys, without which, will keep the blessings locked away from us. It is never going to be Him withholding His blessings. I started this thought with the statement that misfortunes, such as birth defects and disabilities of one kind or another, are sometimes blamed on God by we who say, “There but for the grace of God go I.” We say so in ignorance. May we all be blessed to know that God does not curse a living soul with disabilities. Let us merely say, “There but for my good fortune go I.” And then go and assist those who are unfortunate in order to bless their lives and in so doing bless our own. Blessings are magnetic and they are attracted to happy, positive thinking people. We are blessed if we think we are blessed, even if we have very little of worldly things. The greatest blessings we can all enjoy are God’s creations, from the smallest flower to the immensity of space and the glorious universe in all its beauty. Probably the greatest blessing that an individual can enjoy is the kinship of our families and friends. Most other blessings are moot without others to share and enjoy them. One of our greatest joys is to know another is experiencing the same excitement that we are. There are no blessings and no joy in a vacuum.