Um, I really, like, REALLY want to do hard things, but I’m just a little stuck on what I should do.. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
-Ivy

Stay strong in Christ all. I love you and am prayin for you.
Meshaay

In my own life, I have observed that the hardest things to do are often the things most worth doing. For example, I used to teach dance classes at a home schooling group. I started when I was only 15 and some of the children I taught were not much younger than I. I found it so trying, I would sometimes end up in tears. I hated planning the classes and choreographing the dances to teach, not to mention the fact that administration happens to be my lowest motivational gift, but the rewards I got back from them far outweighed the trials! Mothers would speak to me and share how their daughter was really growing in the Lord spiritually and they credited it to my influence on them. How God uses us sinners,huh?! Friday (when I taught) went from being my worst day of the week, to my favourite. I now look back on those classes with fondness and miss the good ole’ days!

Praise God that He doesn’t just call us to the easy life!

Onward and upward in Him,
Kedesh

Personally, I felt that I have lived an easy live. That doesnt mean I havent done hard things, it just means looking back, they werent hard at all becasue i had God on my side, and his Spirit in me. So to ask me what some hard thing Ive done is is a tough question, because I had faith in the Lord, and he provided and it was no longer hard. Yet, when I tell people my testimony, they all seem amazed. The first time I told my testimony was to about 100 people, and about 98 of the jaws were on the floor by the end. I dont see my life as tough, and I wouldnt change any part of it, even the parts I regret, or am ashamed of, becasue without them i wouldnt be who I am today. I want to be challenged to do hard things, because itll be a chance for my faith to grow stronger, and for me to grow closer to the Lord.

You all are an amazing counter-cultural message to our youth that the best life to live is one you can look back on as a challenge, an adventure. What do you want tell your children? That you spent the first decade of your independent life playing video games? Or that you travelled far, tested yourself to your absolute limit, learned everything you could possibly learn from anyone who’d teach you, thought hard, worked hard, and had an impact on people around you?

Our culture is selling us short by telling us to take the easy way out!

Not to knock video games, there’s time enough for those even for a hard-charging globetrotter. But I feel like I’ve been following the philosopy on this website almost instinctively. All the men and women I respected most in life had lived or were living an adventure. I just had to set off on that trail myself just as soon as I was old enough! I’m 26 now. I finished my degree at 21, spending a year of it abroad in Europe. I enlisted in the Army (in case you were wondering how I could afford that degree and year abroad,) and am now in my fifth year of military service, second year in Iraq. It’s been amazing. But I won’t lie: it’s getting pretty difficult.

Now I’m running into hard times. That whole “testing yourself to your absolute limits” sounds great in print doesn’t it? It’s pretty hard, sometimes devastatingly hard, in real life. A fair warning to all of you. You do have limits, and existing right at or beyond them is difficult to even describe. What I need is Christ to take these hard times and use them to shape me into a disciple worthy of Him. It will take the rest of my lifetime, but I’m willing! Thanks so much for your website, this is just the encouragement I needed at this time in my life. I’ll keep reading.

May we all learn to count it all pure joy, my brothes and sisters…