virgin islands scene

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
-- Abraham Lincoln
 

 

Monday, November 4, 2002

Challenges and frustrations

The moment you were born you were faced with the serious, life-threatening challenge of a lack of oxygen. So with only the slightest hesitation you figured out how to breathe, and have been doing so ever since.

A year or so later you had become extremely frustrated at not being able to move quickly from place to place. So you figured out, largely through trial and error, and with incredible persistence, how to walk.

But the people around you didn’t understand you very well, and you longed to improve the situation. So you listened very carefully, and learned the subtleties and enormous complexities of language.

It sounds like an empty, high-minded platitude to say that the challenges and frustrations are blessings in disguise. Yet when you look back and think about it, that has been precisely your experience since the day you were born.

Even to this day, the challenges and frustrations continue. Yet you have already overcome some of the most serious, difficult and complicated ones imaginable, and there’s every reason to be confident that you’ll continue to do so.

The fact is that the challenges have indeed made you stronger, the frustrations have most certainly motivated you to reach ever higher. And as you confidently work your way through each new challenge and frustration, you’ll continue to receive the valuable blessings they have to offer.

— Ralph Marston

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Copyright ©2002 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. All Rights Reserved. The Daily Motivator is provided for your personal, non-commercial use only. Other than personal sharing, please do not re-distribute without permission.