13. Our Earth Life Is a School

A bishopric message written on Tuesday, July 30, 1996, and published in the August 1996 issue of the Newsette, the monthly newsletter of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward.

The summer has been passing quickly and within a few weeks the children will be headed back to school. The changing of seasons, the transitions in our lives, the comings and goings of loved ones, births and marriages and deaths—all these are a part of the normal flow of life and can be important reminders to us of the transitory nature of our existence here on the earth and the critical need of our preparing for the life to come.

Our earth life is a school. Each of us is a student. We are here to learn and grow and experience and discover. We are here to master the lessons and take the tests that will better equip us to live everlastingly with our Heavenly Father. “For behold,” the Book of Mormon teaches us, “this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors” (Alma 34:32).

Elder Neal A. Maxwell has reminded us that “one’s life is brevity compared to eternity—like being dropped off by a parent for a day at school. But what a day! There is so much to get done in this mortal classroom” (Ensign, June 1996, 16).

Concerning what we are to get done in this mortal classroom during our day at school, Elder Orson F. Whitney taught in the early years of this century: “This earth was made for God’s children, his spirit sons and daughters, who take bodies and pass through experiences of joy and sorrow for their development and education, and to demonstrate through time’s vicissitudes that they will be true to God and do all that he requires at their hands.

“When we have done the things that we were sent to do, when we have gained all the experience that this life affords, then is the best time to depart. School being out, why not go home? The mission ended, why not return? That is what death means to a Latter-day Saint. The only sad thing about it is parting with the loved ones who go, . . . but it is simply a passing into the spirit world, to await the resurrection, when our bodies and spirits will be reunited—the righteous to enjoy the presence of God. . . .

“If we can be patient and resigned, and by God’s help do his holy will, all will come out well. Trials purify us, educate us, develop us. The great reason why man was placed upon the earth was that he might become more like his Father and God. That is why we are here, children at school. What matters it when school is out and the time comes to go back home?” (Improvement Era, Nov. 1918, 9–11).

May the Lord bless each of us to pass all the tests a gracious Father has in mind for us during this brief day at school—that we need not lament with those who say, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!” (D&C 56:16). Rather, may each of us return home with honors, celestial diploma in hand, to the loved ones who have gone on before and to our Heavenly Parents who sent us here.