I have a friend who is a Narrative Therapist and on a regular basis (when our children were younger) I would phone her up and cry “HELP”.

One day, after listening to me rambling on she asked me “Noel, what do you want for your children?” and I replied “I want them to be happy!” and she said to me “You can’t want that for them.  If they do not experience unhappiness and sadness how will they ever know what happiness and joy is.  If they never experience failure how will they be able to enjoy success.  If they never experience feelings of depression, loneliness or hurt how will they ever be able to develop feelings of empathy for others who suffer with these emotions?”

In other words how will we or our children ever be able to grow into our full potential as human beings if we do not experience pain, hurt and disappointment? It is what we do with these emotions that is important.

If I am asked the same question today “Noel, what do you want for your children?”  My answer is “I want them to grow up with a sense of their own self-worth and in the knowledge that God loves them and desires the best for them”

My prayer for each one of us is that we, through God’s immense grace, will grow in the knowledge that God loves us and that He is still true to the words He spoke so many years ago “I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).

One of the things I believe is that God never wastes a hurt and that oftentimes your greatest ministry comes out of your deepest pain, in God’s garden of grace even broken trees bear fruit.”

Rick Warren (Author and Minister)