As I reflect on my life I can remember many times that it seemed that there was no answer to the problem I was dealing with. As a young boy I remember looking into a washtub full of green beans that need to be strung and broken. It looked like it would be easier to move a mountain than to get that job completed.

Later I remember shoveling a dump truck full of dirt and spreading it out in the low places in our yard. It seemed that there was no light at the end of that tunnel. As impossible as those things looked at the time, I was able to accomplish the task because I stayed with it. The motivation that I had to finish these jobs was not the reward of accomplishment at the end of them; it was my dad who told me to do the job, and I knew that the consequences would be harder on me than the work. When the work was done, even though I was made to do it, I still experienced a feeling of accomplishment. I would have never experienced that rewarding feeling if my dad had not made me do the work.

Later in life I had the ability to stay with a job until it was completed. I can remember times I finished a job when the money had run out and it would have been easier to give up. When dealing with difficult situations it seems as if they will never end. With some experience you realize that life will go on and there are better times ahead. I have learned that it is better to work my way through these things than to just accept and endure them. I must admit however, it is still my first instinct to give up on the difficult situation ahead.

What is it that drives me to roll up my sleeves and work my way through those really tough situations? What changes that first reaction of gloom and doom into determination to accomplish the task at hand? Is it only a selected few that have the ability to know that tough times are not the end and life will go on?

These and other life questions will be addressed Sunday morning as “The Gathering Place Family” meets in the Washington Junior High School Library for Bible Study at 9:30 and in the gymnasium at 10 a.m. for our Pre-Service Connection where we enjoy coffee, juice and donuts. Our Worship Service and Children’s Church then begins at 10:30. Come at 7 p.m. and be part of our Wednesday night Bible Study and Children’s Ministry on the third floor above Trends at 120 W. Court St. in Washington Court House.