Accept and Be Accountable to Trials

It can be good to place yourself in difficult circumstances because in doing so it will help you grow exponentially. The key is to make the hard experience positive rather than feeding the negativity that could come. We can have this positive attitude in hard circumstances in two different scenarios. 1. Hardship created by your own doing, and 2. Hardship placed upon you regardless of your wanting of it. For the first example of hardship come from people who are motivated and have a high self-esteem. They often put themselves in situations that test themselves in one way or another. This hardship is something you choose and can be anticipated and you can be prepared for it more mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. We can see this in an athlete such as a sprinter who set his goal to get a 4 minute mile, or a doctor who is going for a Phd after years of studies alongside striving to earn money for a family, church and other extracurricular activities. You can see people who intentionally get into a relationship, or marriage or befriend someone who is going through lots of trials. All of these are by your choosing. The second type of hardship happens without you intentionally wanting it. This is something that can still be anticipated as you can play many scenarios of what might happen before it actually happens, however, it often times comes as a surprise still and can be unwanted. These hardships can include things such as breaking a leg as an Olympic sprinter which prevents you from accomplishing the 4 minute mile, or going into school and then finding yourself in great debt because of the unexpected cost for tuition and other expenses, or having an unexpected breakup or divorce in a relationship you thought would never fail. We’ve all pictured the perfect date and then we go into the date, and we have a complete opposite experience than what you had planned. Although I’m speaking as if both of these hardships are separate beasts, in reality they are almost going hand in hand in any difficulty you may face. For example, from a Christian standpoint, we can see the Savior Jesus Christ whose ultimate goal was to perform a sacrifice for our sins so that we can repent and return to live with Heavenly Father again. The Savior knew he was supposed to perform this act, we can call the Atonement, and he prepared himself to the best of his ability to face the impossible task for a mortal man and an incredibly inspiring and unfathomable trial for the Savior who was both Mortal and Immortal. Despite his knowing and his preparation and his choosing to make this sacrifice, he was a perfect being and he for the first time faced trials that were beyond anything he had ever faced. In the Scriptures it says that he suffered all kinds of pains, and the consequence of temptations. For the first time he felt abandonment, guilt, depression, fear, and so on. The Savior could only do so much in preparation, he needed to gain the experience. So we can see both of these hardships, the wanted and unwanted hardships can work in unison in many ways, and undoubtedly they build your character. Regardless of what type of hardship you face, your perspective or attitude can make it 10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times harder, and onward! Having a positive attitude can have the inverse effect as well and make your trials that much more bearable and meaningful. Like Nelson Mandela, who was the first Black African President. Before he impacted Africa and its future, he faced over a decade in prison for something he was falsely accused of. This was definitely something he didn’t have in his life plans. Despite this, he chose to accept the hardship regardless of the trial being placed upon himself. This allowed him to be more of a victor rather than a victim. For Mandela, rather than deciding to dig the pit deeper, he used the trial to empower him even more, and gave him power to not only endure but to excel. Because of his optimism, he knew he would one day do greater things beyond sitting behind prison walls. One of Nelson Mandela’s important characteristics comes from the “Invictus” which was written about him. In this the final line says, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul!” You are the captain of your soul! There is a story of a person who was a crewmember on a ship who was getting really frustrated because it almost seemed as if they were going in circles. He was angry at whoever the captain was. He asked in an irritated voice, “who is the captain of this ship, we are going nowhere!?”. The crew responded saying, “you are!”. The man looked up to see that on his head was a hat, he reached his hands up and grabbed it, turned it around so he could see the hat, and surely it was the captains hat. To his dismay, the entire time he was angry and bitter, he had the soul responsibility of getting the boat in the direction they needed to go. The only person he could be angry at was himself. Are you complaining and turning the blame on others or are you taking responsibility for the direction and progress you take in your life. YOU and only you in the end can transform YOUR life and it starts with your attitude.