Troubles
Troubles are part of every life. Whether great or small, whether petty annoyances or major problems, we all experience troubles once in a while. We hope they will be small and infrequent but it doesn't seem possible to eliminate them entirely. But it's important to deal with troubles in the right way. What we do in response to troubles is, in my view, the major indicator of good character. The way people behave when faced with difficulties, with problems, often tells us everything we need to know about people.
We all know people who meet troubles with surrender. These types have a hard time succeeding in life because they give up when courage and determination would carry them past the troubles. They find troubles so difficult to confront that they withdraw from the contest. Still others meet troubles with anger. While this is better than surrender, anger usually makes it more difficult to deal with problems because it makes it more difficult to think, to reason, to find the solution to the problems. Although it sometimes gets us moving to do something, anger is not the best response.
Then there are those who meet troubles with an expectation that the troubles will be overcome and they will move forward with their lives. These people don't surrender, they don't get angry, they simply move forward to overcome the troubles. But there is yet another group of people that goes one step beyond, that does even better in facing and overcoming troubles. These are the people who welcome the troubles, who relish the opportunity to overcome them, who learn from the troubles and become stronger after overcoming them. These are the people we must strive to be.
Welcome troubles and
overcome them. You'll be stronger, you'll feel better about yourself. And by
being stronger you'll be better placed to help others.
2-27-06
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