Even attempts to avoid suffering only last a short while, and this is actually a good thing.
It turns out that when there is little to no suffering,
when someone is coddled,
sheltered,
or treated as overly special (I’m not counting the occasional birthday party),
that they are deprived of building in character traits like
patience,
endurance,
humility,
not to mention critical thinking skills.
If discipline, to include pushing exercise and restricting food intake, are not established early in life, then it becomes much more difficult to recover later on both health and the important life skills a child will need to live responsibility in adulthood.
I am so grateful for every tough coach and teacher I had.
I may not have liked them at the time but they played mature adult roles to my childish behavior and I am better for it.
Discipline and punishment, when appropriate, are good things.
What is a bad thing is not teaching people to resist the temptation to blame others in order to get oneself off the hook.
Taking the punishment like a real man or woman is considered by many foolishness today.
And yet learning and then demonstrating that you know how to accept responsibility sets you up later for leadership positions.
This is because people who know how to stoically suffer as part of handling responsibility will learn to make better decisions for themselves and those they lead.
They won’t cut and run at the first signs of trouble.
They know what it takes to suffer on all levels: spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically, and then come back out on top, ready for the next challenge.
Sadly if I tried to do the jobs of those who were my coaches and teachers today in the same manner they did back then, I would probably last less than one semester. (However, this may be dramatically changing as I write).
Lord, help us all should our military and first responders go soft.
When people go soft, life gets hard.
When life gets hard people either give up or toughen.
When people are tough, the quality of life improves.
When the quality of life is comfortable from the hard work of tough strong people, it encourages following generations to enjoy life, take it easy, and grow soft, until life gets hard once again.
Where do think we are right now in this cycle?
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.