Falling

So a couple of days ago I was playing with my nieces and nephews outside. They were riding bikes, scooters, and whatever else we have to ride. Anyway, my niece kept falling down and she would cry and look to someone older to scoop her up and make it all better. This would have been totally fine if she had fallen just once or whatever, but she kept falling and crying. It was so hard to not just run to her and make it all better, but I know that she needs to learn for herself how to get through things and be strong... otherwise she will turn into a brat and a crybaby. As I was watching all this take place, I thought about how it's just like Heavenly Father. He watches us and sometimes we fall and just expect Him to pick us up and make it all better. Sometimes that is exactly what He will do, but sometimes He has to let us just figure it out for ourselves. If He just fixed everything, this would be a world full of brats!!! No, really. There are times when I really need Him to just scoop me up and make it better, but He knows when I need that and when I need to figure it out on my own. A lot of people expect Him to just fix everything and if He doesn't, they stop believing in God or say that God must not love them. I think the exact opposite is true. This life is so that we can learn. It isn't to prove to God that we can make it through anything that is thrown at us. It is for us. He already knows what we are capable of. This life is so that we can prove to ourselves that we can make it through anything and that our faith is strong enough. If I didn't have hard times in my life, I would never have to use my faith. I would never have to push myself to my limits. I would have nothing to be proud of! I'm not saying I am perfect at life. We aren't supposed to be! That is the whole point! We are supposed to fall and make mistakes and have hard times. But we can't expect a truly loving Heavenly Father to just automatically fix everything. We have to learn.