My grandson is currently serving a mission in Durban, South Africa, and he writes home every week. His letters represent answers to questions that his mother asks him. Before she started that routine his letters were very short and with very little information or substance. She decided that she would ask him questions to find out what she wanted to know and what she thought other family members would want to know. So her letter to him each week is a series of questions, and his letters home are answers to those questions. His answers are usually short and to the point, but at least he has something to respond to. One of the questions my daughter asked her son was: “How would you explain that God loves all of His children, when some live in terrible circumstances? Why do some have a better situation in life than others?” My grandson’s following response, I felt, was a pretty interesting answer: “I would say because we are all so different, he puts the strong ones in harder situations because they can overcome the trials, and he puts the weak in the cradle of good circumstances.”
That question about the privilege of birth is probably a question that every thoughtful, sensitive human being has asked down through the ages. I remember, even as a youth, talking with my friends about the rich kid that lived on the hill in the big beautiful house. The comment that followed was common, “He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” meaning that he was privileged. Why was he born into a rich family, and we were born into poor families? We wished that we, too, could have had all his fancy toys, to have our own bedroom and to get to ride in their fancy family car. Our youthful discussion of this phenomenon was limited to the differences in the circumstances of birth privilege in our small community. The only time that I recall it being extended to places unknown to us was when we wanted to leave something on our supper plate that we thought did not suit our palate. The stern rebuke would sometimes come as a character assassination such as: “You eat the food on your plate, don’t you realize that there are people starving to death in China. They would love to have the food that you want to throw away.” The thought in my young mind was, where is China and if they want this food they can have it.
A more sophisticated response comes from the scriptures and from the mouths of our prophets. “And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all,” (Abraham 3:19) and “And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;” (Abraham 3:23–24) President David O. McKay said that from these scriptures in Abraham we can infer two things: first, that there were among those spirits [in the pre-mortal life] different degrees of intelligence, and varying grades of achievement. Between the extremes, the “noble and great” spirits, whom God would make his rulers and those who were disobedient and rebellious, who were cast out with Satan, there were many spirits of varying degrees of faithfulness. The privilege of obtaining a mortal body is seemingly so priceless that those pre-mortal spirits even though less faithful or less valiant, were permitted to take mortal bodies. Degrees of valiance may be an answer in regards to “bounds of habitation.” God is a just Father and therefore some of his children may have been born into better circumstances than are others based on their valiance in that pre-mortal state. We know from the scriptures that we are going to one day be judged, based on what we do here on earth, so isn’t it reasonable to assume that we may have been born in places and times based on what and how we did in the pre-mortal state? Whether born in a more enlightened area, country, and during a time when the Gospel was upon the earth may possibly have been a factor of our faithfulness in our spirit state. The church has never come out and stated that as a doctrine of the church, but it has been implied by several of the brethren.
The man on the street may respond in another way, a way unrelated to religion and/or the philosophy of the ages. His response might simply be “the luck of the draw.” That same answer might be given for those who were able to escape from the dirt-floored hut in a disease ridden village in the poorest country in the world. How was he able to escape? The luck of the draw?
Some of the greatest men and women were born and/or raised under difficult circumstances. ‘Those whose itch is more difficult to reach, scratch harder.’ Booker T. Washington coined the phrase, “The advantages of disadvantages.” He felt that having been born a slave and being deprived of the right to a formal education drove his ambition to gain the very best education possible. His circumstance is not an isolated case. Many who are born in poverty know that the only way to a better life is to struggle like a drowning man trying to reach air. Their plan to succeed may include finding a way to obtain an education or by just plain, but difficult, hard work and ingenuity.
Those born to wealth and comfort may feel that there is no need to struggle, because everything they want they may possibly have just for the asking. Emerson said, “Whilst [man] sits on the cushion of advantage, he goes to sleep. When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something…” Whether born to privilege or born in poverty, any greatness achieved by man or woman is usually a result of a discipline they have subjected themselves to.
Some believe that those who are born and die before the age of eight, the age of accountability, were special spirits in the pre-mortal period. We also know that certain prophets have been sent to the earth at specific periods of time and to specific places when they were needed to fill their preordained callings.
In summary, as my grandson suggested, those born in difficult circumstances may have been stronger spirits and more able to survive than those born in privilege. Then again, they may have been less valiant in our premortal state, or maybe it was just “the luck of the draw.” As life will attest, just because one is born in privilege does not mean that they will remain privileged, for there are disadvantages to being advantaged. Too, just because one is born under difficult circumstances does not mean that they cannot succeed and one day become the advantaged.
Man, regardless of his birth circumstance, should take the talents he is given and develop them to the best of his ability. For if he fails to do so he will lose even those he was given. (Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14)