It’s O.K. to Do Hard Things; Perseverance is Important

“I don’t like ___. It’s too hard,” is a common phrase I hear. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it is from one of my toddlers, or a full grown adult, I tend to hear the phrase often. In our house, my response tends to be, “It’s ok to do hard things.” However, adults often don’t think that message applies to them. Our culture seems to promote that we should always be happy, or comfortable. If we are uncomfortable, everyone around us should change so we can be comfortable, or we should remove ourselves from the situation. Yet, I believe perseverance is an important character trait.

Avoiding Tough Situations Won’t Get You Anywhere

If we always quit or avoid tough situations, we will never breakthrough to what’s on the other side. Often on the other side of that tough situation is victory. 

When I was working my corporate career, I often had situations with other people that were difficult. I remember one time, in particular, where I had a coworker that would constantly aggravate me. The longer we avoided the topic, the more difficult things got. One day, we blew up at each other. When we sat down and had a discussion over what was frustrating each of us, we realized that we were misunderstanding each other’s intentions. We were able to see things from the other’s point of view and better understand how each other operated. It gave us insight on how to work with each other in the future. Unfortunately, early in my career, this happened with a number of people with whom I worked. In every situation where that happened, we ended up being really sad when our time together was done.

The confrontation was the tough thing that no one wanted. However, without the confrontation, things couldn’t be resolved. Eventually, I learned better people skills and was able to have productive conversations about these feelings before they became a messy confrontation. If approached in a loving, genuine way, confrontation can be calm and beneficial.

Trials and Suffering Has a Purpose

I think we tend to shy away from things that are difficult. We want to stay comfortable. I know I often have to force myself to get out of my comfort zone and press into hard things. It’s not easy, but I know it is necessary to grow. 

There’s also a religious teaching out there that if we are doing right in God’s sight, He will protect us from any sort of hardship. I don’t agree with that. If you look at the Bible, there are all sorts of people that were right in God’s eyes that had to endure hard things. Job was honorable in God’s sight and God allowed Satan to take everything from him and strike him with disease. In the end, it was all returned to him double, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have to go through trials and pressures.

1 Peter 1:6-9 tells us, “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Peter is telling that we will have to face trials, but they have a purpose. They are to refine us and to create a genuineness of our faith in Jesus.

I believe there are many things that Jesus has protected me from. However, my life has not been a pollyanna field of roses just because I trust in Jesus. With every struggle, though, I have learned to lean into Jesus more for my strength.

Perseverance is an Important Character Trait

Romans 5:3-5 says, “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Here we are being told that suffering has a purpose in creating better and stronger character for us. Through a strong character, we also develop hope, which strengthens our relationship and trust in the Lord. Hope is actually a confident expectation in things not yet seen. Many people think hope is just a wish. 

When you think of hope in the right definition, you can see why hope strengthens our relationship and trust in the Lord. Having a confident expectation that Jesus will bring you through the trial and restore you, strengthens your trust in Him. When He delivers on that promise, you trust Him more and have greater relationship with Him. Our stronger relationship with Jesus is another way God is glorified.

Another place the Bible discusses trials and perseverance is in James. James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Again, James is saying that persevering through trials is another way to test and strengthen our faith. Perseverance causes us to be mature and complete. I want to be complete and lack nothing. However, I don’t necessarily want to think of the suffering part that often comes before the strengthening. I don’t want to ask for situations to cause me to endure pain.

My Experience

Over time, I have been through a number of trials and pressures in my life. Going through them was hard! Many times I wanted to give up or didn’t want to go on. After I have been through them, though, I can see how they strengthened me. For many of the situations, I can see how I grew through them or what they taught me. Some are still too big to understand, but that’s ok, because I know God will reveal it in time.

I hope this article has blessed you. If you enjoyed it or know someone who would benefit from it, please share it.