Eat Your Veggies First

Why does it seem that just as life offers a moment of joy, we are suddenly bombarded with struggles? A failed exam, a flat tire, a sleepless night, or loneliness; simple things that add up to so much more. Especially if those little things are accompanied by the larger trials in life, such as a money crisis, illness, or loss of a loved one. Why must these things happen to us?

There's this song I know, called "Stones in a River." The name of the artist escapes me at the moment, but the lyrics are another thing entirely. "Like stones in a river we are tossed and turned when the current moves so strong. Like stones in a living water over time are shaped until the edges are gone." In other words, the struggles we face in life are what make us who we are.

I have yet to meet anyone who actually enjoys going through a trial, but how many of us actually ENJOYED eating nasty vegetables as a kid? Perhaps it's not the perfect analogy, but the concept is very much the same. I'd eat a cookie over a carrot any day of the week when I was little. Yet my parents insisted that I swallow my pride, and my spinach before I could have a single taste of something sweet. Now days I sometimes find myself on my knees asking the Lord, "Please, can't I just have the good stuff?" Of course, I still end up with a metaphorical plate of spinach. There are several things I could do with that spinach. I could complain about it, or throw a temper-tantrum and cry, "Why don't I ever get what I want?!" Or I could swallow my pride, and my spinach like a good little girl, and keep an eye out for my next treat.

Trials aren't amazing and wonderful. They aren't usually a piece of cake, and they're certainly not something I look forward to. If they were they wouldn't be called trials. But perhaps they're better for me than I realize. As Kelly Clarkson said, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stand a little taller..." or as my parents said when I was a kid, "Eat your veggies first." I may not have known WHY I had to eat that nasty plate of spinach, but looking back now, its much easier to see how it helped me grow.