Sundeee School

In Sunday School recently, we were reading in 2nd Nephi about Adam and Eve and the Fall and how one must experience unhappiness and darkness before one can truly appreciate goodness and joy. Then followed a big discussion about what misery really is. One woman raised her hand to state that people in less affluent countries experience misery when they experience their families or their entire communities killed. That prompted a young man to comment that he had served in the military and traveled to Afghanistan, and despite their poverty and what they've been through, those Afghans were still happy. That started a huge debate about whether people living in countries ruled by wicked leaders and experiencing terrible things experience actual misery.

Then we read 2nd Nephi 2:11, where it states that there must be opposition in all things- good vs. bad, and misery vs. holiness. So according to this scripture, misery has to mean the absence or lack of holiness. A perfect example is that of Alma the Younger in Mosiah 27: 29, after he repented Alma was "in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more." That's the purpose of the Fall of Adam, so that we may rely upon Christ's atonement to repent and change and knowingly experience joy.

And danged if I didn't realize all this a few days later. If I had thought of it sooner, I would have had a great comment to share in Sunday school class to end the ridiculous debate.