Kintsukuroi: a method of repairing pottery and people

The other day, I was listening to a conference talk from October 2013, cuz I have some old talks saved on my iPod and I hadn't yet had a chance to download the new ones (PS I've since downloaded them, just haven't had time to listen to  any of them).

Called of Him to Declare His Word, Elder Randy D. Funk

This talk is all about missionary service, but that's not really the point that hit me.

We are broken so that Heavenly Father can heal us to be stronger than we were before.

Image source

I originally found this image on Twitter not too long ago (posted by @LatterDailySt), and it made me think of this concept. The part on the bottom where it says "the piece is more beautiful for having been broken."

I'm in a ceramics class at school, so I totally appreciate the skill it took to make that bowl. It was beautiful before it broke. But the gold repair work in the cracks make it even more gorgeous. We as humans are like that, too. We as individuals are great works of art before we break. But then we go though trials, and we crack and sometimes even shatter. Heavenly Father uses those trials to make us stronger, to repair us with gold, and we come out better than we were before.

Imagine if the potter tried to put those gold veins in the piece without breaking it. Lemme tell you, I don't think that would work so well. You could paint the gold on the outside, but the effect wouldn't be quite as amazing. Likewise, Heavenly Father could just send us to Earth with all the experience we would ever need. But what would be the point? We would not be nearly as beautiful, because we would not have done the work required to obtain that inner beauty. Our whole reason for being here is to go through trials and to break, because that is how we learn and grow.

<3 Marie-Rose