Pain is a phenomenal teacher, and yet we avoid it all the time. We don’t want to experience it. We attempt to position our lives around the central theme of avoiding suffering. As a result, the slightest hint of it throws us off our game. Worse still, we squirm in every manner possible to get out from under its thumb once it arrives.

One of the first things we do when the clouds of struggle gather outside our door is pray for God’s deliverance. What would happen if God chose to answer every request of this type you offered? Would your growth trajectory remain up and to the right?

At best your growth line would stall and in time your mind, will, and character would begin to atrophy. You would lose all the ground you’d gained, and be incapable of continuing to develop.

Why is this so? Because, “That which hurts, also instructs.” The pain and suffering of life has purpose. It isn’t something to avoid. It is a thing worth embracing. It is something to rejoice in, to consider it a joy to experience.

You embrace things you love or that provide an extraordinary personal benefit. While suffering may not sound like a thing you’ll love, it is a thing of supreme benefit.

We don’t learn helpful lessons on the mountain top. We learn them in the pit of the valley. That’s why so much of life appears to take place there.

When faced with two options, choose the one that scares you the most. Choose it because it will lead to all the positive lessons you need to learn and the qualities you need to develop.

The fire that forges the strongest steal burns the hottest. It’s a violent and uncomfortable process, but one that produces the best results. That’s why you sit at the top of the mountain looking back on the difficult journey you completed. In time, you grow thankful for the most painful things in life.

Choose the hard path and embrace the pain for all the good it will lead to in your life.