“The trees now are too close together. Because of this they are able to protect each other from the wind, but that in turn keeps them from becoming strong, and then it’s easy for them to be destroyed by little things such as beetles. When they’re farther apart, they’re less protected from the wind, and so become stronger.”
At least that’s how my brain, always searching for symbolism, remembers what she said. But it made me think: sometimes, when life gets hard, it might seem like we’re on our own. Like there’s no one there who can help us. And while we can always turn to God, I believe that he will only help us as much as we absolutely need. Life is supposed to be difficult; to be so hard we’re not sure how we can make it through. But those are the times when we grow the most; when we’ve been pushed so hard the only way to make it through is to be stronger than we thought we were – and so we become stronger than we used to be.
I remember my first month of college. My first month of living on my own. No parents and only one person that was not a new acquaintance. As much as I loved it, it was so difficult. It was stressful. Really, really stressful. But it taught me to be independent. I learned to be responsible, to be self-disciplined, to get along with roommates. It increased my confidence exponentionally. There was never a time, throughout that whole month – or since then, for that matter – when I was not happy with my decision to move out on my own.
Life is hard. But it’s the hard times that enable us to learn and grow like we were sent here to do. And as we learn to deal with these hard times, our confidence and happiness grow. It is the hard times that make life worth it.
