When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure. Quote by Peter Marshall
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During some periods of our lives, the difficulties that we face can seem insurmountable. And during these times, it is easy for us to "long for life without difficulties." However, as Peter points out, the hardships that we face are what strengthen us, define us, and help us to grow into the person we were meant to become.
Like a sapling, we begin a bit frail, in need of nourishment. As a young boy, I needed the support of my parents and those around me to help me through difficulties that lay before me. However, over time, the hardships in my life began to strengthen me, they allowed me to grow strong roots that helped me to rise up above those difficulties. And so it is that the things that test us in life, serve to make us stronger, just as the oak trees that we see outside.
And similarly, the beauty we find in diamonds could not be seen, if not for the incomprehensible amount of pressure involved. Our inner beauty, like diamonds, is forged in the furnaces of adversity, tempered by the hammer of trials and obstacles, and molded by our own triumph over those very difficulties that perhaps we once feared.
There is sure to be difficulties in our lives. If we accept this fact, the hardships will be fewer and less intense, for acceptance of difficulties allows us to relate to them in a much more positive way.
Today's Challenge: Find acceptance and growth in the difficulties you face.
Questions to consider:
How do you see difficulties in your life?
Do you accept them as learning or teaching situations or wish they would go away?
Have you grown more as a person when dealing with difficulties or when life has been flowing smoothly?
For further thought:
Sometimes things which at the moment may be perceived as obstacles--and actually be obstacles, difficulties, or drawbacks--can in the long run result in some good end which would not have occurred if it had not been for the obstacle. Quote by Steve Allen
www.morethantherapy.org
Recorded on 1/1/2020
