Pain is for our good

"Pain protects. Pain teaches. Pain is necessary. Pain is beneficial. I should be grateful for pain. We plead with God to heal us, to take away our problems and our pain. We call upon God to remove it, and we are usually not pleased when it seems our cries fall on deaf ears. I suppose that's why 2 Corinthians 12 and Ether 12 have always stood out to me. You can almost hear the pain as Paul describes his "thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7) that despite his pleadings, God never removed.

Or when Moroni goes before the Lord worried about his weakness, only to have the Lord respond that He gave Moroni his weakness (Ether ‪12:27‬). Why would God do that? Why would he not remove Paul's painful "thorn in the flesh"? Why would God give Moroni—or any of us—weakness? It seems like an odd thing. If we are supposed to become better and make it through this experience, it certainly seems like it would be a lot easier if we didn't have our weaknesses, our pains, our trials, or our temptations.

I suppose that's where the beauty of pain becomes evident. It appears that this need for experience is the defining purpose of our existence. To gain understanding, empathy, knowledge, and some of those things can only come through pain, through suffering, and through hard times. We need events, and moments. We need experiences that will be powerful enough to change who we are into what we want to be.

Pain and those experiences that cause it are for my benefit because they help me to grow and become a new person. I am weak, and I was created that way. My weakness and my susceptibility to pain are not defects. I am supposed to have "thorns" in my flesh. I am supposed to have weakness.

The need to repent does not mean God's plan for me has failed. Repentance is His plan for me. The fact that I am weak, that I struggle, and that I sometimes hate those weaknesses does not mean that I have failed, it means that I am experiencing, and if I "endure it well" (D&C 121:8) then I will become someone even better and brighter—because it will push me to the place where I need to be in order to make those changes.

Pain helps me become someone who is more understanding. Pain makes me someone who is empathetic. Pain inspires me to change and grow when I was previously comfortable. Ultimately, pain helps me to become someone who is complete (or in other words, perfect); because my pain, my trials, and my bad days can bring me to Christ, and He can strengthen me and make me who I want to become."

-Marshal McConkie