"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
Winston Churchill
We talk it over late at night, after the kids go to bed. We crunch numbers, review bills, and come up with a few ideas, formulate a plan. It's not until the next morning that I realize that, despite the sobering conclusions of the night before, I feel lighter. Hopeful. The road ahead is sure to be a tough one, something requires us to give more and more of ourselves, something that requires even more sacrifices. But in the still of the morning while the coffee starts it's morning grumble, I feel like a weight has been lifted.
No one goes looking for difficulty, or hopes for hardship. We all want the good things, the easy things, the fun things - the places where the benefits are right out front, and we can see them like a lit up sign. Its the hard-won benefits that are near invisible, that you have to dig to find. But sometimes, the things you fight and sweat and pray for - those are the things that mean the very most.
I fill two mugs with steaming coffee, add the cream just as he meets me in the kitchen, his arm stealing around my waist, pulling me in close for an early morning hug. I feel it then, the first of many prizes: in taking on the tough things together, we get closer. Our shared struggles bind us together more than any easy path ever could, and already we're stronger because of it. When I see him lay down his life for his family, shouldering sacrifices and giving everything he has - I fall more in love than I've ever been before.
He heads off to work and I start my day, too. A day fraught with difficulties. A day brimming with blessings. We're in this together, and that knowledge spurs me to take on the challenge, meeting it head on with my chin held high.
"That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God"
1 Timothy 4:10
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Beautiful. I am often amazed how less daunting something feels once the hubby and I have talked things out, and figured out a plan.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and every so true. My husband and I just talked the other day about how when one of us hurts it is almost unbearable for the other. Talking it out always makes everything, if not better, lighter.
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