7 A final word

With the birth of our newest grandchild this month, I have reflected on what she is getting herself into and on the nature of this mortal experience each of us is having. The scriptures teach us that mortality is simply a probation, a test, a proving ground.

"And we see that death comes upon mankind," the Book of Mormon teaches, "nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead" (Alma 12:24).

"For behold," the record later adds, "this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors" (Alma 34:32).

So, this earth life is simply like being sent away to school. We came from the presence of God, where each of us lived before we were born. We have been sent here to experience what we could not have experienced in our pre-earth life, to figure out how to live in and control a physical body, to learn our lessons, to pass our tests. And when our particular curriculum is completed, we return home through the portal we call death.

A part of the genius of how this whole curriculum is set up is that we don't know how long it will last. We do not know how long we get to be here. It varies for each of us. That makes it hard to procrastinate our repentance. It means we have to take on life in the bite-sized pieces that we call days.

That is undoubtedly why we are warned that we should not waste our time here at school: "But wo unto him that has the law given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state!" (2 Nephi 9:27).

And in another place: "Be wise in the days of your probation" (Mormon 9:28).

And although we plan forward and have faith into the future, we need in a sense to live each day as though it could be our last. Because it could be. And because each day we are becoming pretty much what we really want to become.

Nearly a century ago Elder Orson F. Whitney, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, similarly taught that our earth life is a school: "This earth was made for God’s children, his spirit sons and daughters, who take bodies and pass through experiences of joy and sorrow for their development and education, and to demonstrate through time’s vicissitudes that they will be true to God and do all that he requires at their hands.

"When we have done the things that we were sent to do," continued Elder Whitney, "when we have gained all the experience that this life affords, then is the best time to depart. School being out, why not go home? The mission ended, why not return? That is what death means to a Latter-day Saint. The only sad thing about it is parting with the loved ones who go, . . . but it is simply a passing into the spirit world, to await the resurrection, when our bodies and spirits will be reunited—the righteous to enjoy the presence of God.

"If we can be patient and resigned, and by God’s help do his holy will, all will come out well. Trials purify us, educate us, develop us. The great reason why man was placed upon the earth was that he might become more like his Father and God. That is why we are here, children at school. What matters it when school is out and the time comes to go back home?" (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 9–11).