He never promised you "the dream"

Many of you know I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have a women's organization as part of our church- the Relief Society and it is the biggest women's organization in the world. There is a General President of this organization and she is in charge (technically) of all the members world wide. She makes global visits to encourage, train and teach these women. On a local level, there is a Relief Society President in each congergation. She is called by the Prophet and President of our church to serve as General President, it's not something you campaign for. Our current General President is Julie Beck.
Sister Beck (as we call one another brother and sister) visited Seattle this last weekend! She met the Bishop of our congergation at a meeting in Salt Lake City last year and he invited her to come, speak to the women in Seattle and spend the weekend. She even came to our ward on Sunday and I sat one person away from her during our Relief Society meeting- so exciting. She had a meeting Saturday night for women all over the Seattle area. There were people who drove over an hour to see her speak.
I wanted to share in brief some of her message here because I think it applies to everyone, everywhere. She talked about meeting with a group of women (and this could be hypothetical as well as real) and one might say "How come my life turned out this way, I never got the chance to get married although I wanted to." Another might say "I married the WRONG man", another- "I deal with continuous illness", another- "I can't have children", another- "we're dealing with economic difficulties" and on and on. Sister Beck said (in the kindest way) that basically, we were never promised "the dream". We were never promised the "perfect life". We were only promised an experience. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we believe that we lived as spirits before coming to earth and obtaining bodies. We believe that Heavenly Father gives us this experience to come to earth as a time to grow and gain knowledge and learn to be obedient and find and accept His Son, Jesus Christ and His good news message of the gospel- that he atoned for our sins. He never promised us the perfect life, only Eternal Life if we repent and follow His commandments. Even people who seem to have "the dream" probably don't feel that way. Why do we waste so much time worrying about how imperfect our lives are and appreciate the experience? I don't know, but I am going to try and work on that. What a great message to remember and what a great lady- she was amazing.