Day 47: Gratitude and growth through trials

My heart is full. I echo the words I heard in church today... "I am grateful for my trials." I have mulled over these thoughts for months, but sharing them has never felt quite right. It's hard to find words that convey gratitude and forgiveness without sounding self-righteous and indifferent. I hope to express the prior. It would be malapropos to thank my x-husband, yet I feel a strange appreciation for my divorce, as it has made me a better person and opened opportunity that would have never come otherwise. My greatest trial has become my greatest blessing.

Today I realized I have been divorced for seven months, almost to the day. Looking back, it has gone by fast, but at the time there were months that seemed would never end and days I feared would last forever. The first two months were spent recuperating from shock, as I had gone from happily married (or so I thought) to divorced in less than six weeks. I was flung onto an unknown road I never fathomed I'd have to travel. January was the longest, loneliest month of all. I remember telling myself daily, "If I can just get through today, tomorrow will arrive, and if I can just do that 28 (22, 17, 6, 3) more times, February will finally be here." February arrived, and with it, greater hope. As the months passed, each has brought certain growth and gradual healing. Now, here I sit, baffled over how quickly June is passing. Finally. Clocks have sped up again.

I have gleaned invaluable strength and life-changing knowledge which was foreign just seven short months ago. The opportunity in my trial is apparent, and I've learned things I never knew I never knew. My bitterness is subsiding, as the beauty of my circumstance continues to unfold. I am grateful. I am blessed.

TODAY'S FOCUS: Trials are a sign of life, and no-one passes through unscathed. Storms will arise, but it's the very rain from those which will encourage dormant seeds to bloom.

In 2005 California experience tremendous rains, producing landslides and wreaking havoc. This same rain generated the largest wildflower bloom in living memory over Death Valley. Seeds that had lied dormant for hundreds of years bloomed into over 50 varieties of wildflowers, and the valley was covered in waves of gold, purple and white, while a large lake formed in the basin at Badwater - the lowest point in North America. It was a phenomenon unlike any in recorded history.
What may appear ugly, bleak and hopeless can be transformed into an awe-inspiring scene, if we allow the rain in our lives to produce blooms. Find the opportunity in your trial and capitalize on it, through which you'll discover a beauty that you never knew you had. Rain of life is guaranteed, but blooming of dormant seeds is up to us.

QUOTE: "Out of the refiner’s fire can come a glorious deliverance. It can be a noble and lasting rebirth. The price to become acquainted with God will have been paid. There can come a sacred peace. There will be a reawakening of dormant, inner resources. A comfortable cloak of righteousness will be drawn around us to protect us and to keep us warm spiritually. Self-pity will vanish as our blessings are counted." -James E. Faust