PRACTICE: Jot down a few points (positive & negative) about a life scenario that made you stronger.
I like to work out to a famous song by a three-time Grammy winner called Stronger. The refrain gets me every time… “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” If I am working hard, I work harder. Not only do the words make me sweat more as I push, I believe they are true. I have lived through difficult challenges and emerged on the other side a stronger, more resilient version of me. How do I know that to be true? because coping became easier the next time around. Since challenges only cease when the last breath leaves the body, I most likely will have other opportunities as proof.
Travel this summer stirred memories of growing up on a farm in rural Georgia. During my teenage years, my parents decided to build a new house. They didn’t have a contractor. They didn’t have any real experience in construction. The floorplan was drawn up by the local high school agricultural/shop teacher and they and my brother began the work. They built as they had money to pay for supplies. In order to get started, part of the old house had to be torn down. Living space decreased to 2 bedrooms and a kitchen. I watched and lived through my parents scrapping and working to have the money to pour into the new structure. Living conditions were rough but they did not kill me. After what seemed an eternity (It took more than a year to build), we finally moved into our new home.
This event still informs my view of life and how to cope with difficulty. I look at difficulties as something to go through rather than my destination. I remind myself that I can do anything when there is the promise that this too shall pass. When I exercise, I am fully aware during the warm-up that there will be a cool-down. All I must do to get to the cool-down is to work through the middle part. Experience has taught me that the work out will not kill me and eventually I will be stronger because I persevered. Career and work changes have been dealt with in the same fashion. I knew that they would not defeat me, and things always change.
Does any of this make the challenge easier in the moment? I think it does. I am still alive. Every difficult place has laid another stone in my foundation for a stronger more secure me.
James 1:2-4
PONDER THIS THOUGHT – Remembering past victories help to inform how I embrace current challenges.
Comments