Day 254: Two Good Quotes

Here are two good quotes I read the other day that I thought I would share.

First, Thomas Paine wrote the following during the midst of the Revolutionary War in 1776. Pay attention to the last line especially.

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country, but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.”

In our day, President Gordon B. Hinckley, touched on the same idea. He said:

“All of us have problems. We face them every day. How grateful I am that we have difficult things to wrestle with. They keep us young, if that is possible. They keep us alive. They keep us going. They keep us humble. They pull us down to our knees to ask the God of heaven for help in solving them. Be grateful for your problems, and know that somehow there will come a solution.”

As I have mentioned previously in this blog, I have been very blessed in my life. My challenges have been few and my blessings have been many. I know that many of you reading today have faced trials and sorrows far greater than any I have been asked to endure. On a day to day basis, as I interact with the Afghan people, I am humbled as I see first hand the enormous struggles, including war, poverty, and death, that they have faced for so many years.

I am sure that one reason I am on this deployment is to teach me, at least on a small scale, the truth of the above quotations. At times it is hard to be “grateful” for this challenge that has come to me and my family back home. It is easy to think “why me” or wish that it would all just go away. However, I know that someday I will look back on this experience as one that was essential to helping me and my family reach our eternal potential. I often think of a favorite line from the hymn Come, Come, Ye Saints that states, “Why should we think to earn a great reward, if we now shun the fight?” The fight is real. The struggles are often overwhelming. The trials at times seem more than we can bear. However, as Paine taught so long ago, “the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” How grateful I am to know that there is One who knows our souls intimately and understands perfectly our pain. He will lift us up, strengthen us, and ultimately lead us to that great reward that awaits us all.


Today, I saw a rainbow (you have to look closely to see it in the picture) for the first time since arriving in Afghanistan. It came in the midst of what was one of the windiest and stormiest days that I have seen. Kind of a fitting event for today's post.