Why did this happen to my child? Am I to blame?

It is not uncommon for parents of children with disabilities to ask themselves, “What did we do wrong?” Many people in the Savior’s day believed, as do some people in our day, that trials and challenges people face are consequences of sins they have committed. President Boyd K. Packer said: “The idea that all suffering is somehow the direct result of sin has been taught since ancient times. It is false doctrine.”¹ By studying the following event in the Savior’s life, we can learn important truths about our adversities and challenges:

“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

“And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

“Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:1–3).

Notes

1. Boyd K. Packer, “The Moving of the Water,” Ensign, May 1991, 7.