Sometimes when I'm sleeping I have profound thoughts come to me. Last night was one of those times. I was wondering why the Lord allowed me to marry a mean and mentally unstable ex-wife and stay in the marriage as long as I did.
The thought came to me that the Mormons left New York and went to Pennsylvania, then Ohio, then Missouri, then Illinois, then finally Utah. Why did the Lord allow the Saints to be persecuted everywhere they went? Then the thought came to me, had they come to Utah straight from New York, they would have had to leave in January in order to get to Utah in July. I figure it would have taken them 6 months to walk from New York to Utah. Any way you cut it, the Saints would have had to travel for a fairly long amount of time in the winter months and many more would have died along the way. Instead, the Saints left Nauvoo in March (the beginning of Spring), yes it was still cold, they had to cross a frozen Mississippi, but for the most part they were able to travel in warm months because they were closer to their final destination.
How does this compare to me? The Lord was using my ex-wife to help me get closer to my eventual destination. Along the way I had to be humbled and learn certain things. I had to build up "temples" only to abandon them.
I am now in a much happier place, not that I don't have trials and struggles, but I am now in the "land of my inheritance". I have a great wife and great kids. This is where I was meant to be but I would have never reached this destination had I not had struggles in my personal "Missouri" and "Nauvoo" in order to help me get closer to my eventual destination.
