Ours to Own
©2024 Susan Noyes Anderson
image by Leila de Haan on Unsplash
Even the peaceful soul must know distress.
Knowledge was never gleaned from nothingness.
Duress is key, yet joy brings lessons too.
Bitter and sweet (combined) divine what’s true.
Courage is just a word, unpaired with fear –
Resilience but a thought when comfort’s near.
Commitment is untried, absent the test,
and faith can stagnate in the over-blessed.
Life is a challenge and was meant to be,
a proving ground of possibility.
So grasp each swirling feeling; do not hide.
Our most important work is done inside.
For that is where we live, learn, breathe, and love.
Face troubles – then release them like a dove.
There is a plan, God’s plan. We came to grow.
Let’s reach for all the things we need to know.
Hard times will try us, even take us down,
but we stand with our feet on sacred ground.
We are God’s children, loved and taught and known.
And every gift He gives is ours to own.
∞∞∞
If Ours to Own resonates with you, you might also relate to Brokenness Heals and Hope Note to Self.
Two highly applicable quotes from one of my all-time favorites, Neal A. Maxwell:
“One’s life cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free. Therefore, how can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, ‘Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art!’”
“A good friend, who knows whereof he speaks, has observed of trials, ‘If it is fair, it is not a true trial.’ That is, without the added presence of some inexplicableness and some irony and injustice, the experience may not stretch or lift us sufficiently. The crucifixion of Christ was clearly the greatest injustice in human history, but the Savior bore up under it with majesty and indescribable valor.”
Not that I am in any way comparing my or other human suffering to the Savior’s, whose suffering was a direct experience of His collectively taking on every single pain and sorrow we and all of us have ever borne or will yet bear in this life. Instead, I am noting that we have everything to learn from His selfless love, unshakeable trust in the Father, and absolute humility in accepting the mission assigned to Him. We, too, have a mission in life, and it is to become as much like Christ as possible. It can be no surprise that this will never occur in a trouble-free vacuum. And that is the very good reason why we don’t live in one.
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Tags: adversity, becoming, courage, discipleship, God, good gifts of God, growth, Jesus Christ, life, overcoming, progression, resilience
