I've been on camping trips where it has been cold and wet. I've also been in pain for long amounts of time. I've had friends betray me and I've had my life plans abruptly altered - but I've never lived in poverty. I've never had my house burned down, my father shot, gone weeks living only on bread or any of the other things that characterize living in poverty. I wonder how I would endure it or if I would simply give up.
The gist of these scriptures is that God comforts those who are in affliction. That those who turn to him are strengthened. A good scripture saying this is Alma 26:27:
27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.
Maybe being poor makes people turn to God more because you are more familiar with the source of all blessings. For someone like me you could say that blessings come from Target because that is the place where worldly possessions we need and want come from. My husband goes to work but I don't really think of where our money comes from or is going outside of our budget. For someone poor who can't actually live in a budget because their needs outweigh their means they get to see how much life can just be luck and they feel more keenly the results of that luck.
They are closer to the nature of this world and I believe can see something that I can't see because my life is so controlled by the whims of men. A man can decide what clothes are in fashion and the prices, but a man cannot decide if it will rain and poor into my little hut.
If my life was closer to God like it is for people who don't have as much what sort of person would I be? I know I must sound pretentious by making poverty sound like a gateway to enlightenment, but if I learn so much and grow closer to my Savior from seemingly mild afflictions I'm asked to bare then how much more of a saint would I be if I had less?
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