“Why does it have to be so hard?” Josiah moaned, burying his hand in his head. This particular assignment felt like it was just too much. How was he ever supposed to complete it? He wanted to just give up.
Josiah wished he could find a way to transport himself somewhere else. He wanted to escape this challenge. He saw his brothers outside playing, and wished he could join them. Why was he stuck with this task?
“Do you want to learn?” Josiah’s father’s compassionate voice interrupted his thoughts.
Josiah looked up. “Yes, I do,” he replied. “But why can’t we do the assignments we did last week? They were easy enough.”
“Because if you kept just doing them, you wouldn’t keep learning. I have to make it hard for you to learn.”
“This hard?” asked Josiah.
Josiah’s father looked at him lovingly. “Will you trust me to give you the assignments you need?”
Josiah sighed. He didn’t like this assignment at all, but he knew he could trust his father. It helped knowing that there was a purpose to the hard.
"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." James 1:2-3 (ESV)
I’m a sinner saved by grace through Jesus Christ. I’m also a writer—I’ve been writing ever since I could hold a pen. I… 
