Fireside Chat: Hardship Bequeaths Merit

In the 24th Chapter of The Book of Proverbs, it is written:

“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.”

A man of ideals acquires strength when he struggles to carry the millstone of his life. A man of ideals experiences faith when he stares the demons of his phase in the face, unflinching, unmoved from the stench of brimstone. A man of ideals idolizes ideas heralded by other men who carry the fire of grit. He does not complain when he experiences hardship, for he fathoms that God has granted adversity to augment his tenacity. He learns the worth of thrift through poverty, kinship from isolation, and amity from seclusion. God grants these gifts not to tatter a man’s existence, but to give him tools to erect a life which is all his own. It is in this way that the natural can be turned into the spiritual: through sacrifice. Without this a man will lead a divided life.