As humans, we go around thinking that when we are going through hard times in our life it's an awful test and God just doesn't like us -- we struggle financially, things aren't going right at work or we have a sick child. In the past, I have spent days crying, questioning God on why I had to go through the challenge at that time. Did I really need my car to break down on the day I had the biggest job interview of my life? Why does my child have to break his ankle the night before I have a huge presentation and I have to spend the night in the ER? The sudden loss of a loved one who was suffering from cancer -- why me? Why did a certain friend have to stab me in the back? Those were the times when as a human I needed to grow up fast and face things. I didn't want to, I wanted things to come easy to me happiness everywhere rainbows all around, that really was not what I wanted?
Then I think of the good times -- like when I spent time with loved ones.. yes they do make me smile. We all wish those times could come back, the times we laughed so hard we cried. We focus so much on being happy all the time, but what do we learn from those happy moments? We learn gratitude, we learn how to love unconditionally, we learn to let our hearts be free and we eventually figure out what is important in life.
Even though as humans we want to always have good times in life; we want the perfect job, the perfect family, a body and face that never ages, children that will always do their chores, a home that is clean and so much more. If we look deep inside ourselves, this urgency for perfection gives us nothing, but anxiety and the need to never be content. Being happy all the time, is actually not something that teaches us the lessons that we need to learn. I've questioned the universe, "Why can't I always be happy?"
Then I realized that the lessons that we learn in life are from the hard times. The times when we lost our way, when the path ahead felt broken, when the gray skies covered our vision and when we didn't have the strength to even take and once more step, those are the days we learned the biggest lessons. Those are the times when we need to get up , find the way fix the path and just take the next step. So if you look at it the hard times in our lives are actually would help us grow. They allow us to become the great being that we were created to be. As parents we talk about tough love so we can teach our children the lessons that life is going to teach them in the future. The same way God puts these lessons in our way so that we can climb up the stairs of our own greatness.
Starting from today, look at every challenge as a step up two words the greater you. As you walk through the challenges of life, pick up each rock in the way and move it aside so that others don't stumble on it either. Walk with your head held high with pride and believe that you are going to be taught a lesson that is needed!