The Rooster

by Nicky Smith

We had a rooster until recently. He was a mean old soul and would attack anyone and anything that entered the chicken coop. In reality, he was just doing his job, but despite the fact that I went in there every single day to collect eggs and give them food and water, he wanted to kill me. There were many occasions where he hurt me, pecking me when I momentarily turned away. Eventually I learned that the only way to enter the coop was with a 6-foot stick which I could use to protect myself.

One day it came to me that we are much like this rooster. The food and water brought to us, often daily, are like two things: truth and trials. We absolutely need these things to grow.

Christ is someone who possesses all truth in his sphere. He is the most intelligent of all (see Abraham 3:19). If we are to be like him, we need to become intelligent like him, possessing as much truth as he has (see D&C 93:36). But, when he hear new things, how often do we become angry or reject it because it goes against the things we already think we know? We think we are open to truth, but instead we are quite the opposite.

Christ is someone who has overcome all things. If we are to become like Christ, we need to overcome all things, which means enduring trials and using them to be become more like Him. Paul stated that Christ learned obedience through his suffering: "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;" (Hebrews 5:8). We are no different and we need to trials too. How else are we going to learn patience, long-suffering, and so on. Yet, when the trials feel like they are too much, we at times become bitter and hardened. Sometimes we even turn away from God.

If we understood how much truth and how many trials we need to become like God, we would not reject the Lord giving them to us. Ideally, just as this rooster should have been grateful I was bringing him food and water each day, we ought to be grateful for all our trials and all the truths we will yet learn. Eventually we can get to the point were we plead to God to give us more truth and to give us more trials, because we know there is no other way to become exalted.