"Their preservation was astonishing"

The story of the 2,000 Stripling Warriors teaches a valuable lesson for anyone who has suffered, which is everyone.  Because aren't these young men the very model of righteousness?  How righteous were they?  "They did perform every command with exactness" (Alma 57:21). "They are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day; yea, they do observe to keep his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments continually; and their faith is strong" (Alma 58:40).

That's a lot more than I do. I'm not exact in keeping commandments. And if there's anything I do "continually" it's make mistakes, fall back, continually struggling to be "exact," and never quite making it.  Is it any wonder that the 2,000 Stripling Warriors were so miraculously preserved?  They deserved and got blessings that we're not entitled to because of our weakness, right?

I'm thinking no.  Their preservation was miraculous, but I think no more miraculous than the Lord's preservation of me through my trials, or others through theirs.  Did the Warrior escape hardship?  Heavens no.  In  major battles, "there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood...and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds" (Alma 57:25).

They suffered, and suffered plenty.  And not because of anything they did.  They were victims of an aggressive enemy who sought to take away their liberty.  And that enemy made them suffer.

In life, we often suffer as a result of our own choices.  When our choices are more in line with God's will, our choices bring less suffering, but that doesn't mean we suffer any less, we just suffer for the choices of others or because life is a hardship and things happen.

Yet, as the Stripling Warriors were preserved, we can also be miraculously preserved with God's support. God dis not allow these young men to be destroyed because of their strong faith, and neither will he let us be destroyed.  He will allow us to suffer, yes, but in that suffering he will bear us up.

I can bear personal testimony of that.  My own preservation through recent trials is nothing short of miraculous, so that I shout, as Helaman, "And behold, I am again delivered out of the hands of my enemy. And blessed is the name of my God; for behold, it is he that has delivered me; yea, that has done this great thing for me" (Alma 57:35, with my edits).