Heartache

I had an interesting experience, one in which I am having a hard time shaking off. Not that anything terrible happened to me, nothing did, but it was a painful reminder that everyone has heartache. Eliza has a friend from fist grade whose parents are going through a divorce. I will call her friend "Jill". Currently, the kids are spending one week with mom and one week with dad. Recently, the mom moved into our neighborhood which means Eliza's friend is now in close proximity every other week. Yesterday, Eliza came bounding through the door and announced, "Mom, Jill is at her mom's this week, can I see if she can play?" After a snack, homework, and a little laundry I agreed to walk down with Eliza to her house and invite Jill over. I don't want to go into all the details, but something wasn't quite right when we arrived. I ended up coming inside and visiting with her for over an hour and all the while trying to understand what was wrong. The mom talked about the burden of being a single mom. Her feelings of inadequacy, the heavy load of providing, missing her children, worrying about them, and the apparent devastation of a failed marriage. I came home with much on my mind. There is more to the story, but its not necessary to elaborate. However, it was a heartrending reminder that we all have heartache and struggles. Its so easy to look at others and pass judgement, to be critical, or even oblivious. Yet life has its difficulties - for everyone. I just hope that I am not so caught up in my own life, my own stress, and my own disappointments that I neglect reaching out to someone else. And I fear I have. I think of the words which Elder Holland spoke , . . In the process of praying for those angels to attend us, may we all try to be a little more angelic ourselves—with a kind word, a strong arm, a declaration of faith and “the covenant wherewith [we] have covenanted.” Perhaps then we can be emissaries sent from God.