And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.
And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage. And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. 
And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord. (Mosiah 23: 12-15)
I don't know about you, but in that situation, I'm afraid I would be tempted to murmur and say that life is not fair! Here I have repented of my sins and led my people in righteousness and what do we get? We're put into the hands of our enemies. Worse yet, we are being lorded over by Amulon, one of the most wicked, apostate, false-doctrine-teaching villains since King Noah. Where is God in all this? Do bad things sometimes happen to good people? Of course, they do. If we all got the bad or good consequences from our choices immediately, there would be no test. Most difficult of all is when we suffer the sad consequences of someone else's behavior. Through it all, I believe that God, knowing the end from the beginning, knows what we are going to do at any given time. He hasn't forgotten us in our dark days. In fact, that is often when He is the closest.
One night, I had a dream -
I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord
and across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints,
one belonged to me and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest
and saddest time of my life.
This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you would walk with me all the way,
but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life
there is only one set of footprints,
I don't understand why in times when I need you most,
you should leave me."
The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never, never leave you
during your times of trial and suffering.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."
Text from the Book of Mormon
and
poem, Footprints in the Sand by Mary Stevenson
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