Let’s talk about adversity. Everyone has it at sometime in their life, right? It has been said that adversity makes us stronger…it shapes us into the glorious person we ultimately can be! Do you agree?
This weekend we got a nice reminder of enduring our trials and coping with adversity in General Conference, a world-wide church conference which is televised twice a year. I created a sketch/watercolor to share with you today:
Thomas Monson was actually quoting a poem
- by Douglas Malloch
The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.
Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
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That is the complete poem; now that I shared it with you, see if you can find my mistake in my sketch. Sigh.
So if you are facing a trial, think about strength; think about reaching sun and sky and light and air; think about holding counsel with the stars. Someday. When you have conquered and made it through!
I hope these images brought a smile to you today! Have a wonderful week.
May your days be filled with sunshine,