Painful Experiences

**Sometimes when I say “Oh, I’m fine” I want someone

to look me in the eyes & say “tell the truth”

**So great was the extremity of his pain and anguish,

that he did not only sigh but roar.

**Pain is the root of knowledge.

**It is not a question of God allowing or not allowing things to happen. It is part of living. Some things we do to ourselves, other things we do to each other. Our Father knows about every bird which falls to the ground, but He does not always prevent it from falling. What are we to learn from this? That our response to what happens is more important than what happens. Here is a mystery: one man’s experience drives him to curse God, while another man’s identical experience drives him to bless God. Your response to what happens is more important than what happens. –Chip Brogden

**I say that trials and tests locate a person. In other words they determine where you are spiritually. They reveal the true condition of your heart. How you react under pressure is how the real you reacts.-- John Bevere

*Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape. --Charles Dickens

**Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. -- Helen Keller

**Sometimes we must get hurt in order to grow - we must fail in order to know.

Sometimes our vision clears only after our eyes are washed away with tears.

**Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you respond to it.—Unknown