accepting hardship as a pathway to peace...

If something is hard, I wonder if it is right.

I don't think this at the first or even second hard turn.

But by the third or fourth hard turn - especially in quick succession - I will certainly wonder.

Is it hard because creating is not always easy or because the creating is ill-matched to the context?

Hardship is validated or not in its intention and, even more, in its outcome.

If hardship is an output of self-assertion in any of it varied forms, I doubt its value and suspect the hardship actually diminishes self and others.

If hardship is an input to preserving relationships, serving others, creating beauty, doing what is good and discovering what is true, then the hardship is a pathway to what is worthwhile.

O God, help me to distinquish one from the other.