C.S. Lewis once said that “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”\u00a0 I’ll freely admit that sometimes it can take serious effort on our part\u00a0to remember\u00a0that\u00a0our extraordinary destiny will someday\u00a0come to fruition if we just hang in there and we don’t let\u00a0the\u00a0hardships stop us. These last few months it’s taken me more\u00a0effort than ever before to remember that, but\u00a0the older I get and the more I struggles I endure, the more I come to recognize that while hardships may knock us down we do not have to let them knock us out. As long as we are still living we can make the choice to get up and keep pushing ahead. The more\u00a0hardships we face with courage and faith, the\u00a0wiser and stronger we become…the more prepared we are for\u00a0our extraordinary destiny.<\/p>\n
I love this poem because it illustrates the point so beautifully:<\/p>\n
The Oak Tree\u00a0 <\/span>(by Johnny Ray Ryder\u00a0Jr.)<\/span><\/p>\n A mighty wind blew night and day.<\/span> But still the oak tree held its ground<\/span> The oak tree said, \u201cI know that you<\/span> But I have roots stretched in the earth,<\/span> Until today, I wasn\u2019t sure<\/span> Have a beautifully blessed Monday!<\/p>\n ~Amy Rees Anderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" C.S. Lewis once said that “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”\u00a0 I’ll freely admit that sometimes it can take serious effort on our part\u00a0to remember\u00a0that\u00a0our extraordinary destiny will someday\u00a0come to fruition if we just hang in there and we don’t let\u00a0the\u00a0hardships stop us. These last few months it’s taken me more\u00a0effort than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[46,4436,1503,11224,163,96,4106,15211,2351,10636,15117,616,15210,218,178,1477,2833,55,180,15209,378,233,7967,15214,143,2995,2022,15213,1668,112,2479,149,3413,15216,15212,15215,8405,5547,4037,8406],"class_list":["post-8515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-attitude","tag-broken","tag-c-s-lewis","tag-conviction","tag-courage","tag-culture","tag-destiny","tag-dont-let-hardships-stop-you","tag-dont-quit","tag-dont-let-it-stop-you","tag-endure-it-well","tag-endure-to-the-end","tag-extraordinary-destiny","tag-failure","tag-faith","tag-grow","tag-hang-in-there","tag-happiness","tag-happy","tag-hardships-often-prepare-ordinary-people-for-an-extraordinary-desitny","tag-improve","tag-learn","tag-ordinary-people","tag-overcome-it","tag-poem","tag-preparation","tag-prepared","tag-push-ahead","tag-sad","tag-self-improvement","tag-stronger","tag-success","tag-testimony","tag-the-oak-tree","tag-there-is-always-a-choice","tag-things-to-come","tag-we-have-a-choice","tag-wiser","tag-you-can-do-it","tag-you-have-a-choice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8516,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8515\/revisions\/8516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n It stole the oak tree\u2019s leaves away,<\/span>
\n Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark<\/span>
\n Until the oak was tired and stark.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n While other trees fell all around.<\/span>
\n The weary wind gave up and spoke,<\/span>
\n \u201cHow can you still be standing, Oak?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n Can break each branch of mine in two,<\/span>
\n Carry every leaf away,<\/span>
\n Shake my limbs, and make me sway.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n Growing stronger since my birth.<\/span>
\n You\u2019ll never touch them, for you see,<\/span>
\n They are the deepest part of me.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n Of just how much I could endure.<\/span>
\n But now I\u2019ve found, with thanks to you,<\/span>
\n I\u2019m stronger than I ever knew.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n