No Pain No Gain

You've heard the saying, "No pain no gain." Recently a little boy wrote t God and said, "Dear God, My brother just told me how much it hurt my mom when I was born, but he's just kidding, isn't he?" Unfortunately, not! Yet millions of women still choose to go through the terrible pain of childbirth, because they know it's only through the pain that they can experience the great joy of having their own child.

It reminds me of the boy who wanted to help a new baby butterfly that was struggling to get out of its cocoon, so he cut open the cocoon to make it easier. But because the butterfly did not have to go through the pain of pushing and using its own muscles to work its way out of the cocoon, it had no strength in its wings, so it just laid there on the ground and died.

A favorite expression of weightlifters and bodybuilders is "feel the burn". Because even though their muscles burn in pain while they're lifting the weights, they know it's making them bigger and stronger. "Pain causes some men to break, and other men to break records." Remember, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Our problem is we've become "comfort creatures" that are "hooked on feelings". Don't you love the feeling of laying in your warm, comfortable bed in the morning? So why don't we just stay in bed our entire life? Wouldn't that be the happy, good life? Of course not! We know that's not real living! Because happiness and the good life is not just good feelings with no effort, pain or problems.

It's a simple fact that life's full of problems, both big and small. So when you have problems, remember everybody else does too. But it's our problems and pain that make us stronger, better people. So just like childbirth, we need to learn to work with our pain and problems to bring us a new better life. Your stumbling blocks are just stepping stones to success. It's our trouble that gives us traction to climb higher in our character and way of living.