When troubles come, it could be God trying to bring your attention to what needs fixing in your life.

That's how much He loves us. He doesn't want us being miserable and He knows that sometimes we put things off, when we shouldn't. Sometimes we think that if we just put it aside or forget about it, it will go away...but it won't.

In my younger years as a Christian, I'm telling you, I would do anything and everything to avoid conflicts, problems, or challenges. I wanted everything to run smoothly and my faith had not had a chance to mature yet, since I was a new Christian. I would avoid problems like the plague. I later found out that it's SO much better, when we face hard things head on, and address them. They are definitely not going to go away until we face them square in the eye. Until we do that, we will stay in our misery and we won't learn how to grow in Christ or in our everyday lives.

Problems are not there to hurt us, by any means. They are there to alert us that something has gone awry in our lives; something definitely is not working for us and needs desperately to change, or we'll stay stuck in that miserable place, until we learn the lesson. Lessons help us mature, in the long run. We can take three or four or five steps forward without addressing them, but that just defeats the purpose of the lesson, and highlights the fact that we have not learned a thing. We're not understanding the purpose of challenges.

We can ignore our challenges all we want, but they will haunt us, until we learn the lesson, so that we can advance in our lives and grow in Christ. Until we learn that particular lesson, whatever it may be, we shall inevitably have to go back to "Start", untill we address and learn what we needed to. Better to address the challenge now, then let it fester and bother us for a year or so. We must address it, so we can get on with our lives. Life is a series of continuous lessons and growth. When we know better, we do better....then we can move on. It will always be that way. It is also a good way to grow our faith. Things go much better when we trust God. He only wants the best for us.

Now I see challenges in a whole new different light, since I learned the super hard way. I don't see them as the enemy. I see them as God loving me and trying to help me live life abundantly, and be as happy as I can be. And I think life would be pretty boring without any challenges. In fact, I know so. I've trusted him through all the challenges that life has brought before me, for the last 50 years and He has never let me down. He has helped me get to where I am today, and grow my faith, in the meantime.

I've never been sorry. I learned that with God, all things are possible and that He gives me strength, when I think I have none. He proved to me that yes... I can get through anything. And I'm not so smart that I'll never stop learning, and I really do love that. I learned that it doesn't matter how hard the lesson is! It still must be faced. Believe you me, I have been through the worst, yet God saw me through. It's always best to face challenges head-on, but be sure and pray while you're doing it, so God can lead, and you will love the outcome. We weren't made to accept being stuck, when God is there all along, to help us. 👍