These Things Shall Give Thee Experience

The phrase from D&C 122:7 has been running through my head today:

 “...all these things shall give thee experience and be for thy good…” 

I think these chapters in the D&C of God speaking to Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail are some of the most poignant in all of scripture. They are so personal and remind me that God knows everything we are going through. He doesn't only know his servant and prophet, Joseph Smith. He knows each of us intimately.  

I used to think of it as scriptures that applied to the trials we go through. However, now I see that sometimes the "jaws of hell" are from choices we've made and consequences we've brought on ourselves. BUT, even poor choices can be for our good if we learn from our mistakes. And can help us understand others when they're going through similar circumstances. Perhaps we'll even be grateful for our experiences which will give us the opportunity to empathize better and be a blessing that will help someone we love.

 “...all these things shall give thee experience and be for thy good…” 

The other thing I like about verses 7-9 is I feel like we can hear God's pain as well. In the way he describes each and every hurt, getting harder and harder until even the "jaws of hell shall gap open after thee," then reminding us that his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, descended below them all. And asks the rhetorical question, "are we greater than he?" To me it sounds like a parent getting frustrated at a whining child; then comforting him in verse 9 telling him God will be with us forever and ever. Very much like what he teaches just one chapter previously in 121:43. "Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved..."

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the ^apit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; 
if thou be cast into the ^bdeep; 
if the billowing surge conspire against thee; 
if fierce winds become thine enemy; 
if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to ^chedge up the way; 
and above all, if the very jaws of ^dhell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, 
know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee ^eexperience, and shall be for thy good.
8 The ^aSon of Man hath ^bdescended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
9 Therefore, ^ahold on thy way, and the priesthood shall ^bremain with thee; for their ^cbounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy ^ddays are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, ^efear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.