FOOD FOR TEENS: LIFE IS HARD BECAUSE YOU CHOOSE TO BE SOFT

When two objects collide, the weaker of the two objects suffers the most damage, now picture life as an object and you are another opposing object that must collide every day. Every time you feel beaten and battered and you feel like giving up, what you are indirectly saying is that life has beaten you to submission because you're soft. For everyone who must succeed in life, there's a certain level of hardness that he or she must overcome, the hardness was not placed there to make us stumble but to build strength and hardness in us.

King Saul was a man that got the throne on a platter of gold, he wasn't trained to withstand hardness, so when he was supposed to face Goliath he chickened out. David on the other hand was trained, those things that looks like strong oppositions to us are just an avenue for God to build us up. Scripture tells us in Isaiah 53:12, “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” This statement was made concerning Jesus Christ, no wonder when He(Jesus) was talking to the churches in the book of Revelation, He would always say, "To him that overcome will I give..". God could have taken the Israelites through a shorter route to the promised land but he didn't because they would have all perished or turned back at the amount of opposition they would have faced. This is the reason for patience, always allow the Lord to build you through tough situations. No wonder Apostle James told us to count it all Joy when we fall into divers temptations. Don't have the mentality of going through life walking on easy pathways because every time you get things easy you miss the opportunity to learn and grow.

There's a reason why they call success breakthrough because it literally means to push until you breakthrough your opposition. Someone said life is like a video game, Every time you overcome one level you unlock a special feature in your character, this was the secret to David's victory in all his battles, because he had mastered the art of warfare even while no one was watching. Joseph went through same process to become prime minister, I think Joseph was too naive to have succeeded as a prime minister but he needed to be trained through some of life most difficult lessons. If you have observed by now you would have discovered that it is always easier for young kids who had no parents but had a strong desire to succeed against all odds than for rich kids who think all they have come to do on earth is to enjoy their parent's wealth.

There's a popular saying that, ‘HARD TIMES MAKE STRONG MEN’, ‘STRONG MEN MAKE GOOD TIMES’, ‘GOOD TIMES MAKE WEAK MEN,’ ‘WEAK MEN MAKE HARD TIMES.’ It's usually a cycle, so do not ever despise seemingly difficult processes because out of them are the strength and lessons that will help us succeed in the future. According to judges 14:14, out of the strong came out sweetness.

Lastly, I have seen many successful people saying "my kids will not suffer like I suffered", but what they fail to grasp is that it is that suffering that helped them succeed, and they end up denying their children one of the most vital ingredient in their success story, which is why when most of them die, their children are not able to carry on their legacy. A man suffered hunger and difficult situations to succeed and it is only right that he doesn't want his children to go through such, but build new challenges for these ones like learning new and difficult skills, understanding difficult processes, financial prudence, even learning trade as the case may be but don't over shield them from tough situations as long as it doesn't endangers their lives. This is what our heavenly father does to us also, He allows us go through tough situations just to build toughness in us because in the future that toughness would be required to scale through oppositions. 2nd Timothy 2:3, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Don't run away from tough situations but rather confront them and enjoy the true rewards that God has prepared for you.

God bless you