When Your Struggles Seem Too Much to Bear

READ:
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials... — 1 Peter 1:6

REFLECT:
An old violin maker was once seen struggling up a mountainside.

"Where are you going?" a friend asked.

"To the timberline," he answered. "I need some wood for a violin."

"But you have fine trees all around you. Why must you go so far to get wood?"

"Ah," said the violin maker, "because the wood up there is the most resonant of all. The trees on the timberline have struggled all their lives, fighting a never-ending battle with the winds. As a result, they are of rare quality, strong and full of character. Violins made of their wood produce the most beautiful music in the world."

When you face some difficult task, ask God for strength to meet the test. Out of wind-whipped souls comes some of the most beautiful music in the world.

PRAY:
Father give me strength to meet the tests that come my way so that my life can be music to other wind-whipped souls.

This essay by Fred Bauer appeared in Guideposts Magazine.