By Lena Mattice

Throughout my life, I’ve heard so many people say things like:

• Why does it seem like some people have it easy?

• Why is life so hard for me and not for others?

• Why does it feel like everything falls apart when I try to follow what Heavenly Father wants me to do?

• Why do they always seem to get what they want, while I keep struggling?

• Why does one person fit in effortlessly, while another feels invisible?

• What makes someone popular and another person not?

These are questions I’ve asked myself over and over through the years. And finally, I feel like I’ve started to find some answers.

I grew up in a family of 13 children—but being the 12th, I didn’t really experience what it felt like to grow up in a big family. My closest sibling was 10 years older than me, and by the time I was forming memories, she was nearly grown and gone. I mostly grew up alongside my younger sister, who was adopted later in life by my aging parents.

My dad used to say he wasn’t very lucky—except for marrying my mom. He said he was lucky to have her and us kids, but that everything else in life just seemed hard. It always stuck with me—this idea of luck.

What does it even mean to be “lucky”?

According to Google, it means “having, bringing, or resulting from good luck.” But in her book Hidden Treasures, Leslie Householder offers a new way to see it. She defines LUCKY as an acronym: “Living Under Correct Knowledge.”

When I married my husband, I shared my dad’s belief with him—that Boring’s (yes, that’s really my maiden name!) just don’t have good luck. He smiled and said, “Well, now you married me. So your luck has changed.”

I loved that. And I’ve seen the truth in it.

There’s an article about Tyler Haws on the LDS Channel called Seeing Hard Work Pay Off, and it says this:

“Some people are just lucky—lucky at getting into a good college, landing their dream job, and marrying their perfect someone.
But is it really luck?
Sure, luck may have a little to do with it, but usually getting what you want out of life starts and ends with hard work.”

Some people chalk everything up to luck. Others say it’s following Heavenly Father’s plan. Some call it karma. You’ve probably even said, “I hope karma gets them!” or “They better watch out—karma’s real.” We usually say this about people who aren’t kind—people who treat others poorly and seem to get away with it.

But karma, at its core, is about how we treat others. If we’re kind, people tend to be kind in return. If we’re harsh or unkind, that energy circles back. It’s the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Matthew 7:12, KJV)

Google defines karma as “the relationship between a person’s mental or physical action and the consequences following that action.”

When my son chose to play football at a college 14 hours away, I was full of mom-worries. He had just turned 18 and was heading out into the world. He was nervous. I reassured him, “You’ll meet amazing people in our church family out there—they’ll take you in and look out for you.” He smiled and said, “Mom, you’re so optimistic.” I laughed and said, “Yes, I am! But I also know how this church works, and I know how we’ve tried to help others—so now, I believe others will be there for you.”

When we showed up at church that first Sunday, my husband started chatting with a woman while I was talking to someone else. She told him her grandma used to live in a small town in northern Arizona. My husband asked, “What town?” She laughed and said, “Oh, you won’t know it. It’s just a little place called Joseph City.” His eyes lit up. “That’s where my wife grew up!”

Once I talked to her, we realized I had known her grandma, and her mom had known my dad. In that moment, the world didn’t feel so big. It didn’t feel random. It felt intentional. Designed. Not luck.

Some people would say my son was lucky—that they “just happened” to move there three years before he did. But I believe they were placed there for him. And he was placed there for them. They needed each other. They’ve been a blessing to him—and a deep comfort to this mama’s heart with her son so far from home. That’s not coincidence. That’s divine choreography.

In The 12 Laws of the Universe, Kenneth Wong teaches:

“The Law of Cause-and-Effect states that for every cause, there’s an effect. In life, our thinking is the cause, and our experiences are the effects of our thinking.”

It’s not the circumstance that determines the outcome—it’s the thoughts we hold about the circumstance that shape our results.

Trevan and Leslie Householder say it this way in Guided Mindset Mastery (p. 363):

“Nothing happens by chance. Every choice has a consequence.”

And that consequence can be positive or negative—depending on how we choose to see and respond to our situation.

So when we look at other people’s lives, we can say they’re “lucky.” Or we can acknowledge that maybe they are simply experiencing the results of their thoughts, their choices, and their faith. Is it luck? Karma? Cause and effect?

Maybe it doesn’t matter what you call it. What does matter is how we treat people—because in this world, what you give will come back to you.

So pause. Take a deep breath. Look around. And ask yourself:
How can I make this world better—starting with how I treat the people around me?

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