I had to repeat that phrase to myself many times this past week. Challenges come in many ways to families. A difficult child, physical limitations, financial struggles, mental illness, and other assorted trials in the form of learning how to deal with life on earth. Families from every walk of life find themselves saying the same thing to themselves as they seek to find joy in the journey.
A recent Mormon Message called Mountains to Climb focuses on three family difficulties. The first is of a family who had lost their son, the next is a single mother dealing with financial struggles and efforts to raise her children on her own, and the third is a challenge from a once healthy athlete who now has total paralysis sitting in a wheel chair. Each had their own story of joy and happiness but now have challenges in what seemed like a Mount Everest to climb. Many of us have great trials to over come. Can we find joy in our life? Would we ever be happy again?
The message of finding joy in life has come clear to me as I have experienced the death of those who are close to me and watching my adult children struggle with difficulties. It’s not an instant joy but as I have put my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I feel comfort and peace.
“However, at times there appears to be no light at the tunnel’s end—no dawn to break the night’s darkness. We feel surrounded by the pain of broken hearts, the disappointment of shattered dreams, and the despair of vanished hopes. We join in uttering the biblical plea, ‘Is there no balm in Gilead?’ We are inclined to view our own personal misfortunes through the distorted prism of pessimism. We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. To all who so despair, may I offer the assurance of the Psalmist’s words: ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.’ (Psalms 30: 5)Whenever we are inclined to feel burdened down with the blows of life’s fight, let us remember that others have passed the same way, have endured, and then have overcome.”
Valerie Steimle has been writing as a family advocate for over 25 years. As a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she promotes Christian living in her writings and is the mother of nine children and grandmother to twelve. Mrs. Steimle authored six books and is a contributing writer to several online websites. To her, time is the most precious commodity we have and knows we should spend it wisely.
To read more of Valerie's work, visit her at her website, The Blessings of Family Life.
These thoughts have helped through rough times:
It’s never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to me and no one else.
I ask myself with every disappointment, sadness, heartache, storm in life, ‘In five years, will this really matter . . . in the eternal scheme of things?’