Happy National Scrabble Day!

The board game Scrabble is a lot of fun to play.  Just like any game, it can be frustrating at times.  Each person gets 7 tiles with different letters on them, for example, A, E, O, Y, L, T, and P.  Each letter has points assigned to them, and each player takes turns forming their letters into a word that can reward them with the maximum amount of points.  The Scrabble board has some extra incentives that can boost a player’s points such as Triple Word Score, or Double Letter Points. 

It takes a certain amount of skill to spell a word correctly, and to also merge your letters with the other players’ words, since one rule is that you have to use the board words to create your own.

As I played Scrabble one evening during a difficult and trying time in my life, I realized how similar the game Scrabble is to life and the trials that can be given to us. 

We all get 7 letters in Scrabble, and we all get trials.  Some letters are assigned more points, but they are also usually the harder letters to make words with.  Some trials seem harder than others, but trials can also be the way learn and grow.  We are given the agency needed to choose our response and our learning options in every adversity.  Someone once said, “Adversity is mandatory, misery is optional.”  Elder Orson F. Whitney said: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. … All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.”

The Scrabble board does have incentive spaces for Triple Scores, etc. and sometimes in life, our trials seem to elevate us in other’s eyes with feelings and expressions like, “Wow, you will certainly be rewarded in heaven for this one!”  However, Heavenly Father knows our own efforts and the letters or trials we are using in our growing process.   We do not need to compare our own issues and trials with others’ problems.  Just as President Dieter F. Uchtdorf counseled us to “not judge because we sin differently”, we also need to not judge because we are going through different adversities.  The pioneers endured losing their homes and walking across the plains, and that is putting it mildly.  Today, we are in danger of losing our families and surfing the Internet, and that is putting it mildly as well!  If we adapt an old adage, “one man’s trials may be another’s treasure.”

 Elder Neil L. Anderson said this in the 2012 October General Conference, “By definition, trials will be trying. There may be anguish, confusion, sleepless nights, and pillows wet with tears. But our trials need not be spiritually fatal. They need not take us from our covenants or from the household of God.”  He then added, “Like the intense fire that transforms iron into steel, as we remain faithful during the fiery trial of our faith, we are spiritually refined and strengthened.” 

We are not playing the Scrabble game or the game of life alone.  Each player takes turns putting their words on the board, and sometimes that means we have a spot that is taken or a letter that helps us find a better word for more points.  It obviously varies in hurting or helping in the Scrabble game.  The difference is that we really do need each other in the game of life.  We cannot progress in or through our trials without the assistance of family, friends, church leaders, and the righteous world around us.  Elder Robert D. Hales said, “I … learned that I would not be left alone to meet these trials and tribulations but that guardian angels would attend me. There were some that were near angels in the form of doctors, nurses, and most of all my sweet companion, Mary. And on occasion, when the Lord so desired, I was to be comforted with visitations of heavenly hosts that brought comfort and eternal reassurances in my time of need.”  We certainly cannot succeed in overcoming trials without our Heavenly Father’s help or our Savior’s help.  In John 16:33, the Savior is quoted as saying, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  Because our Savior descended below us all (Doctrine and Covenants 122:8), He knows us intimately and eternally.  He knows everything about us, including our weaknesses, trials, and struggles.  He knows our joys as well, and He knows how to help us find joy in our jumbled journeys.  When we turn to Him, really turn to Him, we find the true help that we need.

In the game Scrabble, you can choose to turn in all your tiles for a new set of 7 tiles.  In doing so, you skip a turn.  It is a risk, because you might get 7 new tiles that you don’t like!  Can we ever turn in our trials?  No, we can’t just get rid of them that quickly.  Instead, if we ask God in humility for the strength we need to either continue in our trials or to be delivered from them, He will help us.  He helped Nephi as he was bound with cords.  Nephi prayed aloud with faith for deliverance and strength to burst through the bands.  When he said these words, “behold, the bands were loosed from off [his] hands and feet, and [he] stood…” (1 Nephi 7:17-18).  Our Father in Heaven knows what lessons we need to learn, what characteristics we need to acquire, and who we need to become.  Therefore, He will allow us deliverance if it is the right time, or He will allow us strength to continue to climb up through our trials. 

There is a pretty big bonus point awarded for using all the tiles in our ownership.  50 points are given to the player who can use every tile in one turn.  This makes everyone during the course of the game try different variations of their tiles and hope for that one special word to appear.  This can be likened to learning all that we can from the trial we are enduring.  If we use every experience we can to help us along our life, then we can move on from this tumultuous time to a time of peace and H-A-R-M-O-N-Y (65 points!).  Even if the trial does not abate, the peace that comes from accepting God’s will is a deliverance from the anguish that oftentimes we add in and include in the difficult circumstances in our lives.  As I mentioned earlier, “adversity is mandatory, misery is optional.”  We will all have trials, but we will never give up.  Sister Julie B. Beck quoted a pioneer sister who said, “The kingdom of heaven, or nothing!”  We will not fail, we will not falter.  We do not have to sink into misery, despair, or delusions that it is not worth it.  Heavenly Father is loving.  He loves each one of us.  He is worth it.  Being with Him and being like Him is worth every effort we can give to obtain that sweet, peaceful, and loving eternal gift.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.