Frailty thy name is Humanity

As I sit here drinking a vitamin C boost with a cough drop in my mouth and keeping a roll of tissues nearby, I ruminate over the many weaknesses of the human body.  I cogitate about the many diseases of the mind, body, and soul that mortality makes us prone to.  Then I remind myself that this is exactly what I signed up for, and I ask myself why?  Could I have known then or even have imagined the misery of a bad cold?  Surely my pre-mortal list of "things to do during my mortal probation" did not include something so frustrating as having to blow my nose so hard I wonder if I'll either break it or end up passing out from the sheer force of it.  Could I have fathomed the emotion of an unfortunate situation?  I am certain being the bread-winner for my family at a paltry eleven dollars an hour, whilst living in the same room my husband spent more than fifteen years growing up in was not on my list either.  Could I have agreed to come into this rapidly destabilizing society bereft of virtue or morality or integrity?  I suppose I did - because here I am.  "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god - the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me..."  We were made to be such magnificent creations! I often forget that it was GOD who created us and of all the things that He could make, we - mere humans - were the ones He deemed His greatest.  But too often we do not live up to our potential.  We make poor choices, we hurt each other, we forget our own maker.  We ignore wise counsel, we hold on to the past, we take the easy way out.  Even with all these faults and flaws, we are still made after the likeness of our Father - God - and because of the natural side of us, our human side, we have the ability to choose whether or not we live up to that potential.  I suppose I signed up for this because I knew that the frailty of humanity was what I needed to progress.  The weaknesses of the mortal body allows me to see the things I need to work on spiritually.  I can't remember what I was like in the pre-existence, but we are told we will still be the same person once we are resurrected, so I'm guessing I was the same me before I came here.  That means that I wasn't perfect there either.  I still had things to work on, and it just so happened that this was the perfect place and the perfect plan complete with a perfect example.  So I guess that even though I'm sure things like infirmity, age, misfortune, and misdeeds were nowhere on my list of "things to do during my mortal probation," in a way they were all part of the plan, and I am glad that I have the chance to experience it all - the good and the bad - so I can appreciate the beauty of choosing with my own free will to become a better person and live with my Father again.