God Allows Hardships To Help Us Become Who We Need To Be

There’s no way around it. It doesn’t make a difference how we dress it up or how many pretty

words we use to sugar-coat everything; the fact of the matter is that we all know that when life gets difficult, it becomes almost unbearable. The weight of our struggles and problems is heavy on all of our shoulders at different points throughout our lives. Sometimes we can manage, and at others it seems as though all hope is lost.

The thing is, when we step back and take a look at things, we see that good and bad come as a pair because we all know that there are only two spirits - God’s Holy Spirit and the spirit of the devil. It’s the same with light and darkness, life and death, black and white. Within the good times, bad moments. Within the bad times, good moments.

This pattern of rough and smooth is just how life is. It’s how it has always been, for everyone. So how do we manage? How do we approach the very obvious fact that we experience such pain and hardships in our lives?

The first thing to do is accept that there will always be good and bad in our lives. Once we’ve truly acknowledged and understood that there’s simply no getting away from it and that we can’t escape this dual nature of being, we can begin to face up to things. We will experience negativity, yes. That can’t be helped. In a way, it’s necessary for us to experience it. Without the lows, we wouldn’t appreciate the highs.

But when we really look at the problems we face in life, we see that within each and every one there are lessons to be learned. Within each difficulty we face in life lies the potential for our own personal growth. Every hardship we’ve gone through has taught me and you valuable lessons.

Some lessons are harder than others to learn, some troubles heavier than others to carry. But everything we encounter in our lives that we spend on earth is controllable to some point; God doesn’t give us any problems that we aren’t capable of handling (1 Corinthians 10:13). There’s a reason for everything that happens.

Suffering is unavoidable, but most of the suffering we experience is in our minds. The mindset we take to life is therefore what determines whether or not we suffer any more than we have to. If we remember that we’re here to live, to experience, to learn, and to trust the Lord’s plans, then we realize that we are fully capable of handling anything that comes our way, even when it seems like we have no hope, all we need is to keep believing and trust in the Lord no matter what.

If we can see that every cloud has a silver lining, so as our problems and struggles after every storm the sun will shine again. It’s all learning opportunity. It’s not always possible to be positive and see the good in things, but it’s always there somewhere, even if it takes us years to see exactly what it is.

We can’t stop bad things from happening, we have to face it as it says “that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

I know it’s almost impossible to think positive when we’re stuck in a mess with no end in sight. But trust in the Lord the fact that someday we will look back and we’ll be very grateful why things played out the way they did. Our hardships have helped us become who we are today.

My role in my workplace is being a front liner customer service officer. I want to be the go-to person everyone can rely on. I want to work more effectively with my colleagues and gain their trust and respect. To do that, I need to bring my absolute best and most authentic self to the office each day. You can’t simply implement new ideas without things going wrong in that journey.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes throughout my journey and I’ve learned that the best way to handle them is to admit them quickly. Here’s how I usually approach an error:

· Look at the mistake and identify the cause.

· Watch for patterns that increase mistakes e.g. stressful situations, not following a proper process, succumbing to weakness, rushing to get task done and leaving things last minute

We are human after all and so we will make mistakes. But when that happens, don’t dwell on it. Figure out what went wrong, learn from it, and move on. Just a reminder that God allows everything to happen, the good and the bad, to help us recognize our purpose and who we need to be.