Monday, July 30, 2018

Nagging Challenges

Most people I know have one or more nagging challenges--these are the kinds of challenges, similar to shackles that slow you down and often don't go away. Nagging challenges are often lifelong companions.

As I think of these challenges, I notice that there doesn't seem to be any real reason why people are gifted with these challenges and, as stated above, most people have one or more of them.

For many years people try to overcome these hindrances, and in some cases, people are able to beat these nagging struggles, but in other cases there comes a sense of surrender to the issues, an acceptance that the issue is his/her cross to bear, mountain to climb, or rocky path in life.

These nagging struggles are typically not the kinds of challenges that affect the people around them as much as they affect the individual who owns the challenge. These challenges are an individual's forever reminder that no one is perfect and life is never perfect.

On the upside, these challenges when well-understood create empathy, respect, and care--they help people to accept each other's frailty and imperfection.

As parents, we see our own children face nagging challenges too, and in ways that we can, we try to offer ways to eliminate or mitigate these annoyances.

Nagging challenges are part of life--those challenges may slow us down from time to time, and can be positive if we use that time to reflect, learn, and develop empathy, compassion, and care.