We are never given a burden unless we have the capacity to overcomeit. If a great problem is set before you, this merely indicatesthat you have the great inner strength to solve a great problem.Thereis never really anything to be discouraged about, because difficultiesare opportunities for inner growth, and the greater the difficulty thegreater the opportunity for growth.
Difficulties with material things often come to remind us thatour concentration should be on spiritual things instead of materialthings. Sometimes difficulties of the body come to show that thebody is just a transient garment, and that the reality is the indestructibleessence which activates the body. But when we can say, “ThankGod for problems which are sent for our spiritual growth,” they areproblems no longer.They then become opportunities.
Let me tell you a story of a woman who had a personal problem.
She lived constantly with pain. It was something in her back. I canstill see her,  the  behind her back so it wouldn’thurt quite so much. She was quite bitter about this. I talked to herabout the wonderful purpose of problems in our lives, and I tried toinspire her to think about God instead of her problems. I must havebeen successful to some degree, because one night after she had goneto bed she got to thinking about God.
“God regards me, this little grain of dust, as so important that hesends me just the right problems to grow on,” she began thinking.
And she turned to God and said, “Oh, dear God, thank you for thispain through which I may grow closer to thee.” Then the pain wasgone and it has never returned. Perhaps that’s what it means when itsays: ‘In all things be thankful.’ Maybe more often we should pray theprayer of thankfulness for our problems.
Prayer is a concentration of positive thoughts.
When I got back, she had changed her mind—so it’s a good thing Ihad mailed it! She worried a little, but by return mail came a letterfrom her sister, and her sister was so glad they were to be reconciled.
And, you know, on the same day that letter arrived from her sisterthe woman was up and around and out of bed, and the last I saw ofher she was joyously off for a reconciliation with her sister.
that hate injures the hater,not the hated.
Some people spend much less time picking a life partner thanthey spend picking out a car.They just drift into these relationships.
No one should enter the family pattern unless one is as muchcalled into it as I was called to my pilgrimage. Otherwise, there willbe tragedy. I can remember a woman who couldn’t get along withher husband and I could see they didn’t have anything in common. Ifinally said to her, “Why in the world did you marry that man in thefirst place?” And she said, “All my girlfriends were getting marriedand he was the best I could do at the time.” This happens all the time The entire room was faced with polished granite..
Do you wonder why there are so many divorces? People get into thefamily pattern without being called into it.
Emotional attachment can be a terrible thing.When I was workingwith people who had problems it often was a problem of someemotional attachment that obviously needed to be broken. One wasa sixteen year old girl. By now she is probably happily married tosomebody else. I always say time heals all wounds, but she thoughtthen that her heart was broken because her boyfriend had marriedsomeone else. Although she had a hard time coming through it, aftera time she was able to look upon it philosophically. It does take time.
In fact, sometimes people recover quicker from the death of a lovedone than from a loved one who has left them.