Don’t pray for an easy life, without problems – pray to become a strong person.

How would you like to see a permanent end to all of your problems ?

We all have problems – and our problems only end - when we do. The only people without problems are in the cemetery. I’d like to stick around – problems and all. How about you?  No matter what problems we have to face today, there is a solution, because we have nothing to deal with but our own thoughts. As long as we think that our destiny is in the hands of other people, the situation is hopeless. We need to confront our problems with courage, boldness and action.  There’s an old Chinese saying that goes, "If you live with a problem long enough, it could eventually become a blessing." ( It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. ~Albert Einstein ) Within every adversity in life, there is always a seed of an equivalent or greater benefit. We have to look for it - find it - and act on it.  We learn courage - when we face danger. We learn patience - when we endure suffering. We learn tenderness - when we taste pain. We learn to prize true friends – when false ones forsake us. We treasure health - when illness strikes. We learn to prize freedom - when we are in danger of losing it. Without trouble we would be like plants that have sprouted, grown, and been nurtured in the overprotected shelter of a hothouse -- too tender ever to live in the open.  

How can we possibly become a strong person, if we have an easy life? The tougher it is, the tougher we have a chance to become – if we choose to fight back. Tough times never last – but tough people do. We don’t just get the sweet out of life without the bitter - we’d like to, but we don’t. The sun doesn’t always shine; sometimes there are storms, tornadoes, earthquakes, car accidents, fires and death. No one escapes the problems of life. If it doesn’t happen sooner in life, it will happen later.

We can overcome just about any problem, obstacle, or adversity that life deals us – if we have a strong enough will. Where there is a will, there is a way. Create a "bull-dog" determination and a "burning desire," that will eventually mow down all opposition.

Success is not measured by what a person accomplishes, but by the opposition they have encountered, and by the courage with which they have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds. Don’t pray for an easy life, without problems – pray to become a strong person. The higher you go in life, the more problems you will have to deal with.