“To choose hope is to step firmly forward into the howling wind, bearing one’s chest to the elements, knowing that, in time, the storm will pass.” “Despair turns us inward. Hope sends us into the arms of others.”
Scientists grew trees in a sealed biosphere and couldn't work out why they fell over before they matured. They eventually figured out whilst they provided the perfect growing environment, it was lacking wind which provides the stress to ensure the trees grew strong enough to support themselves.
“Adversity comes from different sources. You may at times face trials as a consequence of your own pride and disobedience. These trials can be avoided through righteous living. Other trials are simply a natural part of life and may come at times when you are living righteously. For example, you may experience trials in times of sickness or uncertainty or at the deaths of loved ones. Adversity may sometimes come because of others’ poor choices and hurtful words and actions. “… Your success and happiness, both now and in the eternities, depend largely on your responses to the difficulties of life”
I saw a wheat field that appeared to be greener and taller than the others. Thinking about it for a while, I concluded that occasionally some loving farmer drives over the field with a tractor and pumps manure all over it. I thought my, it is just like life. Here we are minding our own business, growing our little hearts out and we are really quite green, somewhat productive and very sincere when out of the blue life deals us a dirty one and we are up to our eyebrows in manure. We, of course, conclude that life as we have known it has ended and we will never be the same again. But one day, when the smell and the shock are gone, we find ourselves greener and more productive than we have been. Unfortunately, no matter how often we go through these growing experiences, we are never able to appreciate the sound of the tractor of the smell of the manure.
If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness… ...Learning to endure times of disappointment, suffering, and sorrow is part of our on-the-job training. These experiences, while often difficult to bear at the time, are precisely the kinds of experiences that stretch our understanding, build our character, and increase our compassion for others.