In Terms of Life.
My parents have taught me so, so much about life by their example and their willingness to take the time to show me tough love. Over and over when I was younger my mom would say "Well, life isn't fair." and she wouldn't listen to, or give into my whines. I thank the heavens that she didn't.
I think people are forgetting that life isn't fair. Sometimes we don't get the parking spot, the promotion, the pretty picture, the grade, the guy, the before hand knowledge we all need, the vacation we dreamed, the crazy wild Friday nights. Sometimes we get to park in Africa, we get to keep our wage, we get to be the "behind the scenes"[C.M.] girl, we get to screw up and get hurt, we get to sit alone on a Friday night and watch re-runs of The Office. Life isn't all peaches and cream or those of us on a diet, life isn't all peas and carrots.
This lesson, however, is a extremely hard lesson to grasp. Sometimes, you can do everything right, work hard, come early & stay late, give it your all, try everything you possibly know, and STILL don't get want you've been working for. On the same breath, you can try your very least, have every single thing that could possibly go wrong, go wrong and still have it come out perfectly. Life is a crazy twister of give and take that we signed up for.Sometimes you get the short end of the stick, and others you get the long end.
I've recently read the book "My Story" written by Elizabeth Smart & Christ Stewart. The book itself is pretty intense, and a lot to take in, apparently being kidnapped is a traumatic experience even if you're reading it second hand. Elizabeth explains her terrible tragic story of being kidnapped for 9 months and learning to live with it afterwards. People wonder how she can live a normal life, still believe and love a God, and have her own family. Smart attributes much of her recovery to her faith, writing she “never felt closer to God than I did throughout my nightmare with Mitchell.” When I go through hard things or see others go through hard things I can't help but wonder how close to Heavenly Father are they growing. I always grow the most within the hardest times. Maybe we get the short end of the stick, to learn to hang on tighter, trust more, and figure things out.
It's such beautiful, peaceful moment when life hands you the long end of the stick after an unexpected turn though. Everything goes wrong, you aren't sure whether or not anything will last, and suddenly, it does. After a long week, month, year, something breaks through and makes it all better.
Life isn't fair, but that is what makes life worth it. You learn and you grow and get what you deserve and sometimes you get nothing, and that's okay. A fair life doesn't equal a happy life anyways.