Handle Hard Well

We all wait for things to get easier….It will never get easier.  What happens is, you handle hard stuff better….If you go around waiting for things to get easier in life, it’s never going to happen.  Don’t think, “When is it going to be easy for me, like it’s easy for other people?”  It’s not; it’s hard for everyone.  Make yourself a person who handles hard well, not a person who’s waiting for the easy.  If you have a meaningful pursuit in life, it will never be easy.  People who handle hard well are the people who get the stuff they want.  Don’t get discouraged if it’s hard; it’s supposed to be hard.  Make yourself someone who handles hard well, and then, whatever comes at you, you’ll be great.  – Kara Lawson, Women’s Basketball Coach, Duke University


Build Me a Son

“Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

“Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee - and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.

“Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

“Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

“And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the weakness of true strength.

“Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, ‘I have not lived in vain.’” —General Douglas MacArthur, a prayer for his son