One day, my elementary school-aged son came to me in tears, saying his legs hurt. I massaged them, and he seemed to feel better at least for a while. But within a few days, the pain returned so severely that he couldn’t even bend his ankle. We decided to take him to the hospital the next morning. That night, I stayed up, applying hot compresses and massaging his legs. As I held my son, who tossed and turned in pain, I prayed that it was nothing serious. By the time morning came, his pain had vanished. It was as if nothing had happened. What he had experienced, it turned out, was simply growing pains. His bones were growing faster than his muscles could keep up, causing temporary discomfort but once the phase passed, he would have grown taller.
I began to wonder: when I went through growing pains in my faith, didn’t Heavenly Mother too stay up all night in prayer, anxiously watching over my soul? I’ve come this far thanks to Her love and devotion. And yet, I had sometimes thought my faith had grown simply with the passage of time. Watching my son experience his growing pains made it clear to me—Heavenly Mother lovingly shares in the pain of Her children’s growth.