By trade, I am a saw filer. In earlier days, anyone in this trade may have been called either a sawsmith, or a saw doctor – as filing or sharpening saws was only a small part of our trade. A sawsmith, or saw doctor, takes great pains to repair a saw so that the sharpening can be used to best effect. Often times, the repair process involves welding broken teeth back into the saw, or welding a broken saw body back together.
Part of the process of welding involves tempering the welded area. The careful application of heat can cause the welded area to be stronger or tougher than before it was welded. However, the converse is also true. If the welded area is not tempered properly, then it becomes weak and brittle. If this is the case, we say that this area has a “bad” temper.
It is likely that each of us, at one time or another, has been afflicted with a “bad” temper. The experiences of life we go through each day can cause us, if we are not careful, to get “heated”. Life is often called the “furnace” of affliction. A furnace implies heat. Sometimes, the effects of these experiences may take us beyond the boiling point, and we explode. If we are by ourselves when this happens, then the damage done is limited. If the experience involves others, then all too often the damage is much greater. We need only look to the evening news for evidence.
Other times, the experiences of life give us pause to re-evaluate ourselves. While we may wish that we didn’t have to go through that experience, we learn from it and often become stronger or tougher the next time a similar challenge comes around. As we weather the next storm life brings, we may find the experience not quite as difficult to get through. We have been “tempered”, made stronger, by previous experience and so react differently than before we went through that process.
An ancient prophet taught that we should be “full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times. . .”. And, according to that same prophet, the end result of living in this way is that we “will always abound in good works.” It is also helpful to remember that when the Master was told “the tempest is raging”, His answer was “Peace, be still.”
It would seem then, that if we are patient, properly tempered, and doing what we can to live as we should, that the heat we may experience through the challenges this life offers will be for our own good as well as the good of those around us.
Just as a saw doctor (or saw filer) can make a saw stronger by carefully applying heat to a specific area and tempering the steel, so can each of us become tempered – made stronger and tougher -- through the adversities of life by following the Master, even Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
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