Why do bad things happen?

At church the other week, the speaker talked about trials and why we have them.  

He told the story of the blind man in John chapter 9:

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

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

 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

 Sometimes when I'm having a really hard time with everything I've been challenged with, I think "WHY?! Why me Heavenly Father?! What did I do?!"    But it's not what I did, it's not anything my parents did.  This cancer hits pretty randomly.  Heavenly Father gave me this challenge to grow, to show the work of God, to help others see that you can overcome any challenge.  I need to be better at being thankful.  

Another thought I had-  God can send us these challenges because He is powerful, but he doesn't do this to torment us.  He sees potential for us to grow.     I was thinking about how grateful that I am going through this rather than my husband or children or any other family member.  I thought about how much love I have for my children and how I'd never want to see them hurt or tormented. But with some things, I have to let them work out on their own even though I could swoop in and take away the mean kid, the blasted homework (don't have to deal with that yet....) or whatever it may be.  Our Heavenly Father feels the same way! But HE SEES THE BIGGER PICTURE!  He says "April, I love you, I know that this may be a little tricky for a bit, but boy are you going to learn A lot!"