Why Is Life So Hard?
From “Fear Not, I Am with Thee,” by President Henry B. Eyring · Sunday morning session, October 2026 General Conference
The big idea
Life is meant to be a test, but the Savior promises to be with us in it, and He often sends help through people, including us.
Objective
Youth will be able to explain what the Lord promises in Isaiah 41:10 and will send or say one real word of encouragement to someone who needs it.
Before you teach
- Read President Eyring's talk, especially paragraphs 5–10 and 16–20.
- Bring small cards or scraps of paper, pens, and a timer (a phone works).
- Bring a backpack with four or five heavy books in it.
- Ask youth to have their scriptures or the Gospel Library app ready.
Lesson plan
Thirty minutes in 6 parts. Times are a guide; let the Spirit and the learners set the pace.
Sixty seconds, no names
- As youth arrive, hand each a card. Start the timer: they have sixty seconds to write, without their name, one thing that makes life hard for people their age.
- Collect the cards, shuffle them, and read five or six aloud without comment.
- Say that today's talk starts with a boy who asked his mother the same kind of question.
Hal's question
- Have one youth read the boy's question in paragraph 5 and another read his mother's answer in paragraph 6. Explain that the boy was President Eyring.
- Ask the first question below. Let them be honest; do not rush to fix their answers.
- Read paragraph 7 together: his mother was going through serious, lifelong health trials of her own when she said it. Ask the second question.
- Read paragraphs 8 and 10. Ask the third question and write their answers on the board.
- If you asked that question and got that answer, how would you feel? Helped, annoyed, something else?
- Does it change anything to know she was living through hard things herself when she said it?
- President Eyring says everyone's trials are different but the test is the same. In your own words, what is being tested?
Promise hunt
- Split into two or three teams. Everyone opens Isaiah 41:10. Give ninety seconds: each team lists every promise the Lord makes in that one verse. The longest correct list wins.
- Have the winning team read its list. Then ask all teams to look once more for what the verse does not promise.
- Read the first sentences of paragraph 5 and the line from Elder Hathaway about grace as an enabling power.
- Read paragraph 9 aloud, slowly. Invite youth to mark it.
- Which would you choose if you could pick only one: a problem removed, or the Lord with you in it? Why?
- What difference does it make that the Savior knows you perfectly and knows your heart?
The backpack
- Ask a volunteer to hold the backpack of books straight out in front with both arms while you tell the story. Tell them to lower it whenever they need to.
- Tell paragraphs 11–12 in your own words: when President Eyring's mother was bedridden at the end of her life, the only picture on her bedroom wall was of the Savior. His father had a cot put beside her in the hospital room so he could help her during the nights, and after she died he thanked and shook the hand of every nurse who had helped her.
- Midway, have a second youth step in and hold the pack from underneath. Ask the volunteer what changed. The weight is still there; the help is what is new.
- Read President Kimball's words from paragraph 13.
- Who has been the person holding up the pack for you?
A few seconds
- Read paragraph 18 and the first three sentences of paragraph 16. Point out how small these acts are: a few seconds, a smile, simple attention.
- In pairs, give each pair one person to encourage: a missionary who is discouraged, a leader or teacher in a calling, or someone your age who is having a hard time. They have three minutes to write on a phone or card the exact words they would say or send. It must sound like them and be something they would really send.
- Invite three pairs to read theirs. Let the group pick the one that would mean the most to receive, and say why.
- What makes a message like this feel real instead of awkward?
Your move
- Give one minute of silence. Invite each youth to pray silently and ask who needs to hear from them. If a face or a name comes, write it down.
- Challenge them to send or say their message within twenty-four hours, and to pray each day this week to notice one more person.
- Read paragraph 22 and bear a short testimony that the Savior is with them in what is hard and that He trusts them to help.
- Tell them you will ask next week: who did you reach out to, and what happened?
Key passages from the talk
“Hal, of course it’s hard. It’s supposed to be. Life is a test.”
“He knows you perfectly. He knows your heart.”
“Even your simple attention was a comfort.”
“Your kindness to them, even for a few seconds, or simply a warm smile can be a strengthening of their faith that the Lord is watching over them.”
Scriptures
- Isaiah 41:10 Team race in the third segment: list every promise the Lord makes in the verse, then look for what it does not promise.
- Mosiah 18:8–9 Before the pairs write their messages, read it and ask which phrase describes what they are about to do.
- Alma 7:11–12 Optional with paragraph 9: read silently and find why the Savior is able to know how to help us.
Other voices that agree
“God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.”
“This grace does not remove the pain and difficulty of affliction; it is an enabling power”
Three things to remember
- Life is hard on purpose; it is a test, and hard does not mean I am doing it wrong.
- The Savior knows me perfectly and promises to be with me and strengthen me.
- A few seconds of my kindness can help someone believe the Lord is watching over them.
Ways to act this week
- Within twenty-four hours, send or say the encouraging message you wrote today.
- Pray each morning this week to notice one person who needs help, and act on the first face or name that comes.
- Greet the missionaries or a ward leader by name on Sunday and thank them for one specific thing.
- Put Isaiah 41:10 where you will see it, such as your lock screen, and read it when the week gets hard.
Suggestions written for this lesson, not the speaker’s words.
Music
- How Firm a Foundation
Adapting the lesson
- At home or with two or three youth: skip teams. List the promises in Isaiah 41:10 together and write one message each.
- Large class: run the promise hunt in rows and have pairs trade messages with the pair beside them instead of reading aloud.
- No backpack: have the volunteer hold two hymnbooks at arm's length instead.
This lesson is an independent study aid written for this site. It is not an official lesson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Quotations are word for word from the official talk; paragraph numbers count the paragraphs of the talk as published at churchofjesuschrist.org, not counting headings or picture captions. The activities, questions and ideas for acting are suggestions; follow the Spirit and adapt them to those you teach.