When I was playing basketball at the University of Toledo, my coach, Bob Nichols would constantly talk to us about the importance of overcoming adversity. He would tell us that adversity will come, that is guaranteed; but the key was how we handled it.
Most of the time I wouldn't pay much attention to him. I was in college and I thought I had life all figured out. As I have grown older and hopefully a little wiser I now understand that what Coach Nichols was talking about was absolutely correct.
I was reminded of this when I received this in an email from David Jeremiah:
A little girl walking in a garden saw a particularly beautiful flower and promptly picked it because she felt it was too pretty to be in the dirt. She then took the flower home and rinsed the dirt off with water. Shortly thereafter, the flower wilted and died. When the owner of that garden saw what the little girl had done, he exclaimed, "You have destroyed my finest plant!" "I'm sorry, but I didn't like it in all that dirt," said the girl. The gardener responded by saying, "I chose that spot and mixed the soil because I knew that only there could it grow to be a beautiful flower."
Sometimes we become like that little girl, fixated on the dirt of our life instead of seeing the beauty and growth that will emerge in time. But once we have experienced seeing the hand of God in our life, we have assurance that we can trust Him in His sovereignty. So, if it feels like nothing good will ever come out of what you are going through, be patient and steadfast, knowing that God "plans to give you a hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).
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