Great Adversity

Sandwiched Between their

"Once upon and time"

and 

"Happily ever after",

They all had to experience

great adversity.

I believe this one is true with all of my heart.  My own life has been filled with great adversity.  Sometimes more than I ever thought I could bear.  Thank heavens, I never had to bear it alone, even though sometimes it felt that way for awhile.  I had to learn very young that my own happily ever after, was something that would wait for a while to show up.  I think that I needed to experience things in my life before I could appreciate what happily ever after really meant. 

I have learned that it is not something that just happens.  It takes work, lots and lots of work.  It takes being willing to compromise, and to make allowances.  It takes change and sacrifice and loving and giving and even being willing to receive when you might not want to. 

I had to learn that "Once upon a time" was the dream.  I had to let the dream go in order to find the bigger promise of "Happily ever after".  I had to learn to let go of what I thought I wanted, and be willing to be led to what I needed. 

Great adversity is somehow a part of our lives.  My adversity is not the same as yours, it is unique to me.  We don't experience things the same way.  We learn differently and we grow differently, and that is perfectly the way it should be.

Life is never quite what we wanted it to be, but it ends up being so much more than we could ever have imagined.  I am grateful for the adversity in my own life and the lessons and love that it has brought to me.  I may not be the person that I imagined I would be when I was a girl, but Heavenly Father has blessed me to be so much more.