SHAPED BY AD-VER-SI-TIES

As Dumas wrote in his novel, The Count of Monte Cristo:

“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes.” – Alexandre Dumas

 "If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small" (Proverbs 24:10).

I don't like adversities!
Isn't it somewhat perplexing to consider oneself blessed when going through a trial?
  The blessed part is that in the midst of trials, I have survived.

  I have thrived!  The other blessed part is that sense of God's presence and strength through it's storms.

My life time has been full of those blessed moments, those moments that have a way of ambushing, those hours that seem so long, those days that seem endless, those months filled with difficult situations, those years of life taking on many strange experiences and struggles and trying to make sense of challenging, chaotic, turbulent occasions.

Life with adversities has been a long process.  Each difficulty has not been an end of a journey but a change in direction.
I am not about to let my adversities hold me hostage.

Adversities will not just go away.  The Apostle Paul knew what it was like to live with an adversity that would not go away.  I have some that will not go away too.  So we are in good company.
With out adversity, I just might lose my awareness of God's presence and begin to think and act like he is not.  I may even begin to think he does not even exist.

⁷ or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  II Cor. 12:7-10

I have been shaped by my trials, difficulties, hardships, distresses, afflictions, sorrows, burdens, crises, and painful circumstances.
The other blessed parts of adversity are what motivates me to respond, to "fear the Lord".  There are so many painful reminders of my need for him.
Trials expose my pride. They are evidence of spiritual warfare.  They are evidence of God's method for purifying my faith.

  They are evidences of my need to re evaluate my priorities.  They are evidences of my need to pray.  They are evidences that test true friendships.
 Adversities prepare us to comfort others.  One of the most blessed results is that through the comfort I have received from God, I can comfort others.

I was quickly reminded that even though my son was gone,

God had given me three beautiful daughters and two son-in-laws along with six grand children.

To overcome adversity, I have clung to God's Word and held fast to its truths.  Sometimes, that is all you can do.
It's a matter of not allowing fear or grief diminish God's plan and purpose in life, to glorify him.  It's a matter to overcome the reality that I may be left with a special needs care giving role.
Adversities visit all of us.  We live in a broken world.