Our Strength Is In Our Struggle And Our Power Is In Our Pain

Our Strength Is In Our Struggle And Our Power Is In Our Pain

Growth always causes us pain. Do you realize that our muscles will only grow as they tear? When we exercise our muscles, especially those we don’t normally use, we will most likely feel painful or uncomfortable in those muscles a day or two later. That’s because, in using those muscles, we have actually torn them. The tearing will cause us some pain, but our muscles will end up with a greater capacity for strength. Read the story about “The Rock”.

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. So, this the man did; day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down; his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might.

Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Since the man was showing signs of discouragement, the Enemy decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man's weary mind:

"You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it." Thus, giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. "Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put in my time giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough." And that is what he planned to do, until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

"Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half an inch. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"

The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push.  

And now you come to me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself...Your arms are strong and muscled, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard.

Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done.

Now I, my friend, will now move the rock."

This principle also applies to our character. People with real strength of character are those who have overcome many hardships. The situations we struggle with and overcome can give us strength over a period of time.

We all know people who seem to have everything going well for them and everything they do has a silver lining. But often we don’t know how they reached that stage of success. Success is never instant, it is built over time. Mother Teresa influenced a lot of powerful people to help her relieve suffering in India. Where did she get that power? It came from years of struggling to help the poor. Her power came out of her pain.

We often look at people who are successful and we think, “They have not really been through much pain.” Unfortunately, we tend to look at the instant sample or the picture of their lives at that point in time. We notice their nice cars, their achievements, and their comfortable homes, but we don’t see the pain that actually got them their.

You are most likely struggling with real issues right now. But guess what! Your current struggles are going to strengthen you. Your strength is in your struggle and your power is in your pain. In fact, your current struggles are going to give you credibility when you overcome them and begin to share your story with others. If there had been no struggle, there would be no story. If there had been no pain, there would be no victory.

The principle applies to relationships and to business. Relationships that don’t go through struggles never get strengthened. Businesses that don’t go through struggles never get strengthened.

“The important thing about a problem is not its solution, but the strength we gain in finding the solution”

“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.” Richard Bach

“If we don't see a failure as a challenge to modify our approach, but rather as a problem with ourselves, as a personality defect, we will immediately feel overwhelmed.” Anthony Robbins

Look for the positives. No matter how painful a situation, understand that something positive can come out of it. Where does your strength and power come from? It comes from your pain. So what is it that is causing you pain right now? Remember, your struggles are going to strengthen you.

The Most Common Response To Life Crisis Are Denial, Resistance and Acceptance

The Most Common Response To Life Crisis Are Denial, Resistance and Acceptance

Each one of us faces troubles and crises in life that take different forms and different shapes. For an adult, crises could be facing bankruptcy,  loss of a friend, a death in the family or thinking about death, wondering about the nature of death. For a man, upset at where society is going, experience a desire to change the world for the better or looking into the mirror and you no longer recognize yourself, a crisis could be the loss of a job or desiring to quit a good job, unexplained depression or sadness when doing tasks that used to make you happy. To a teenager, a crisis might be a pimple on a first date, exploring new musical tastes or sudden desire to learn how to play an instrument. In these examples, time often reveals a latent humor in the crisis that we never realized when struggling to overcome it.

Three common responses to crises:

The first is denial. We tend to bury our heads in the sand and hope the problem will somehow mysteriously and painlessly disappear in a short period of time.

“Self-acceptance comes from meeting life's challenges vigorously. Don't numb yourself to your trials and difficulties, nor build mental walls to exclude pain from your life. You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory.” J. Donald Walters

The second common response is resistance. This is when we fight what’s happening or fight ourselves in a ineffective effort to somehow regain something that is lost.

“The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance. Resistance is thought transformed into feeling. Change the thought that creates the resistance, and there is no more resistance.”

The third response is acceptance. We may not necessarily like our situation, but we acknowledge it is real and we are willing to deal with the truth of what is going on around us no matter how harsh or how hard that problem might be.

“Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” Joanne Kathleen Rowling

“Self-acceptance comes from meeting life's challenges vigorously. Don't numb yourself to your trials and difficulties, nor build mental walls to exclude pain from your life. You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory.” J. Donald Walters

“Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.” William James

Denial and resistance generally prolong the pain and delay the resolution of a crisis. In contrast, acceptance of these crises opens the door for us to hope. According to Harrison Salisbury, ‘There is no short cut to life. To the end of our days, life is a lesson imperfectly learned.’ That means, we have to move out of denial and resistance and learn to accept and move on. For me, life is a continual process of change. I’ve learned to be honest, to accept not just my failures and shortcomings, but also my strengths.

It has been said that the pace at which we learn is in direct proportion to our determination to rise above uncertainty and go beyond the limitations. Part of learning is to become responsible for our own lives and actions. Whether you like it or not, you are ultimately accountable for your action and decisions, regardless of circumstances.

John Keats said, ‘Failure… is , in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch s every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true’. When you live in denial and resistance, you delay finding out what is actually true.

Challenge yourself:

Do not live in denial, do not keep resisting: learn to accept and move on. Make sure you are the kind of person who moves on to acceptance and therefore on to change.

The Weak Can Never Forgive. Forgiveness Is The Attitude Of The Strong.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attitude of the strong.

It takes strength and effort to forgive others. When people have ripped you off in any business deal or transaction, when your friends, family, love ones or people have hurt you, it takes strength to forgive them. Do you realize it also takes strength to forgive yourself? Refusing to forgive oneself and move on in life is an act of weakness. Sure, you can never forget things. You are not a computer that can erase its memory, but you must forgive.

“Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.”

“Compassion, forgiveness, these are the real, ultimate sources of power for peace and success in life.” Tenzin Gyatso

 

You see, forgiveness is a bridge that every single of us has to cross. You can expend your energy and power blaming others for things that go wrong in your life, for your lack of success, or financial woes. Or you can choose to forgive others when they have wronged you. Forgiveness is your choice.

“True forgiveness is not an action after the fact, it is an attitude with which you enter each moment.” David Ridge

I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is expected. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have hurt, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.' If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure we should never teach.

“A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” John C. Maxwell

Some scientists set out to capture rare species of monkey and bring it back alive and unharmed. To do this they devised a trap, a little jar with a narrow neck into which they placed a handful of nuts. The monkeys would smell the nuts and reach in to get them, but they could not withdraw their clenched fists. They were trapped, unable to escape and unwilling to let go. Sometimes human beings are just like those monkeys. We are unable to escape our past mistakes, fears and failures because we are unwilling to let go.

Have you been mistreated and vowed never to forget the abuse as long as you live? Whether you know it or not, you are harboring unforgiveness and that is sign of weakness. Don’t be a carrier of that disease.

Here are some tips on how to forgive:

Realize you have a file called Dirty Rotten Things People Have Done To Me. Burn the file by choosing to forgive.

Understand that forgiveness is something you will need from others and others will need from you for the rest of your life, so learn to be good at it.

Understand that the person who says ‘I will forgive, and I will choose to forget – to forget the pain, forget the anger and move on.’

Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.

One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything before you go to bed

To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.

Do everything. Love as much as you can. it may hurt but it helps us grow. Give all you have...you may be poor but you will be content. Always forgive....your heart can not afford not to. Teach what you know and learn what you don't. Stay open to all.

Before you speak, listen.

Before you write, think.

Before you spend, earn.

Before you invest, investigate.

Before you criticize, wait.

Before you pray, forgive.

Before you quit, try.

Before you retire, save.

Before you die, give.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

What You Believe At Your Worst Moment Is What You Really Believe

What you believe at your worst moment is what you really believe.

When our lives are successful and we are doing well, then our beliefs appear as solid as bedrock. But when life derails us and wealth, family and reputation are stripped away, after our certainties fade too.

When a winning streak collapses, what do you believe then? Do you still believe the positive things that you once believed? You should, because at your worst moment beliefs are most powerful. In the depths of hopelessness it is the things we believe that really kick in and begin to make a difference.

In your worst moments, what do you believe about your life? What do you believe about your faith? What do you believe about yourself? When you marriage begins to fall apart, do you believe that you are still someone of fundamental value, who can be loved and who has the capacity to love? Do you still believe that you are someone worthy of friendship, even when supposed friends have abandoned you? What do you believe when people say negative things about you? Do you believe all the negative stuff or do you believe the positive? What you believe about yourself in your worst moment is what you really believe.

When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.

Challenge yourself:

What do you believe about yourself today? Do you believe the good things? The good things in your life are set, they are great, they are amazing, and everybody knows them. Everything in life are recoverable. Your looses are recoverable. Your friends are recoverable. You marriage is recoverable.  Finances are recoverable. Don’t give in at the worst moment. You will miss the light at the end of the tunnel if you jump off the train halfway through.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Don't be afraid to fail. Don't waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It's OK to fail. If you're not failing, you're not growing.”