William Ellery Channing
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
I find this to be so inspiring because of the truth of it. Trials and conflicts only make us stronger. Braver. More resilient. More compassionate and understanding. It hurts (badly sometimes beyond words) when you're going through it. You want to stop it. You want to escape it. Or I do. Maybe I'm a minority but I don't really think so. Once you come up from the valley and sit on the cliff and rest, suddenly everything looks different. You see the streams you were watered by, the beautiful trails, the places that may look barren but are surrounded by forests. Valleys. Hills. Mountains. All the different journeys we go on in this thing called life are for so many purposes. I want to learn these things He's teaching me. The only difference is for me personally is I don't walk alone. There is someone infinitely higher, stronger, more understanding who walks beside me, carries me when I'm weak, picks me up when I've fallen.
I'm now reading about valleys. To get an idea what exactly they consist of, because I see that I grow best in them. Once on the mountaintop I have great heights of joy and pleasure. That never lasts a terribly long time. So God must be wanting me to learn and see the richness of the valley and what the worth of it is in my life. I would love any comments or thoughts from you.
*I have to add an update of what I have learned recently. To experience joy in my valley is what God's plan was. Not only on the mountain or after the trial has ended. Joy should be in the heart coming not from your circumstance but from the knowledge that you are His.The progress and growth are evident and I am thankful to experience this. The trials are also much much harder. * Added 11-3-12
