“Good timber does not grow with ease; the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.”
(J. Willard Marriott)

Wishing to make our lives as easy as possible is certainly tempting. For those of us with kids, it can be even more tempting to smooth their paths as much as possible.

But if we actually love our kids, and ourselves, we’ll resist this urge. The strength to live a great life is only developed by overcoming resistance, by enduring hardship, by simply doing hard things.

Normally life provides these opportunities naturally, and yours probably has, but our modern technology and finances has given us too many seductive ways to make life easy.

–Fast food meals, instead of taking the time to cook.
–Ergonomically comfortable chairs, instead of standing more and sitting less.
–Doing our kids homework, instead of encouraging them to struggle and find resources themselves.
–Constantly checking our phones to avoid awkward silences, instead of learning to be comfortable with a little discomfort.

We’re better than this.

Peace begins with pause,