Hung on a Line

Free printable 8x10. Click image to enlarge.

Troubles: everyone has them. Anyone who says differently is selling something. Of course life's troubles ebb and flow; now you see them, now you don't. But rest assured if you don't have any trials at the moment, you will soon enough.

Sometimes we are faced with huge, life-altering adversity and other times we experience those run of the mill troubles that are just part of life. Neither kind of trial is easy to deal with. If they were, they would be pointless--how would we grow? Usually we don't ask for trials , but as I have struggled with one thing or another during my life, I have found that the times that I have been happiest have not necessarily been the easiest times. Attitude makes all the difference. Some people are better at constantly maintaining a positive outlook. I'm not one of those people. I wouldn't say I'm a pessimist, but sometimes I am prone to the "why me?" philosophy. Case in point, my attitude has needed some adjusting lately. The last few weeks have been an ongoing pity party as I've been dealing with the stress of getting ready to move and managing my household. It has helped to count my blessings and realize that in the big picture, my troubles are pretty minute.

Years ago my mom shared some wisdom that her grandmother (my great grandmother) imparted to her. Grandma Hall used to say, "If all of our troubles were hung on a line, you'd choose yours and I'd choose mine." You know what? It's true. We are blessed to have an omnipotent Father in Heaven who tailors our trials to suit us. He  knows what we need in order to grow and to become closer to him. And while I don't think that He causes our trials, I do think know He's there to sustain us through them and to help tailor them to our personal growth needs. Through Him we can have joy, peace and even the hardest trials can be for our benefit.

I've shared this proverb from my great grandma with a few friends in the past. Awhile back a friend of mine asked me to make something that she could hang as a reminder of those wise words. I whipped up this simple little sign to print out. I thought I'd share it with my blog readers as well. I'm going to print it out myself and stick it on my fridge, because really, I have it pretty good.