Life is HARD!! Are the hard parts worth it?

13th Century poet Saadi Shirazi said “Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy”.

In the summer of 2020, when we couldn't do many of our usual summer events, my family went on many hikes. We are not the most rugged family, but enjoy being outdoors. On one of our hikes we were on the Covell Creek Falls trail near Randle, WA. It is not a super long hike, but at 3.6 miles with >950 foot elevation gain, it's also not the easiest hike we have done.

We were about to turn around as it was getting increasingly difficult uphill. Just then a couple was coming down and we asked - how much farther, and is it worth it? They said, “you have 1/10th of a mile left!"

We can do it!!! We continued on, and really enjoyed the falls view! Then it was all downhill on the way back. Easy peasy, and man we were SO happy we didn't give up!

What are other benefits of getting through the hard stuff? With the above example, after we made it to that first waterfall together as a family - we had an increased confidence to do another hike! This one was a little farther - 5 miles, and our son worked on his fear of heights.

How many times do we leave a job, a hike, a workout, whatever it is when it gets hard?? What would happen if we never found the joy of pushing through!? God is with us and allows us to go through those challenges so we can become what He desires for us. Learning is a journey, and we need to struggle to make it stick!

Many of you know last year I lost 40 pounds. It wasn't magic. I persisted through continuing a 12 week Yoga/Strength program - it took me 20 weeks. Oh my, many days were HARD. I did NOT want to. I had to make a choice that I wanted what was on the other side of that hard day.

I feel that slowly I am becoming more like my true self that is what God created me to be. However, it has been hard.

You have the ability to be who you want to be, and do the things you want to do! I am here to tell you - it won't be easy - but if you do the hard things it WILL BE worth it!

I want to challenge you to find one hard thing this week and complete it. Even if you don't want to! Just one - not all of them. Report back the results! If you would like to connect with me for encouragement please email or message me on Facebook.

It will be worth it!