Character Building:
Throughout this latest cold spell in the United Kingdom, we’ve received news from many friends who have suffered the inconvenience of frozen pipes and malfunctioned central-heating systems.
We too have not been exempt from such disaster.
Okay, our problem wasn’t weather related, but it was bad enough!
Even so, have you noticed how certain troubles can test your patience?
It happened like this: While I was having a shower, quickly and without warning, a Niagara Falls effect began to develop in the kitchen below.
To get to the heart of the story here, an undetected leak had occurred over time, and had seeped through the tiles surrounding the shower tray.
This in turn had a knock-on effect, and caused the modern-day floor-boards beneath the shower area to soak – and as a consequence, caused the shower tray to move.
So, as the shower tray moved, the waste-pipe broke away and subsequently, the water instead of flowing down through the pipe – well, it flowed into the room below!
As they say, “It never rains but it pours!”
Anyhow, after an emergency call out – an engineer made it clear that we needed some extensive repair work.
This was no cosmetic job!
Prior to this event, we had already decided to replace the shower enclosure, but as you can imagine, the replacement came earlier than planned!
Most of the week was turned upside-down as we spent time choosing a new enclosure, making alternative washing arrangements and so on.
Thus, we waited for the day when the engineer could finally begin work on the new addition to the Princes’ home.
However, it wasn’t until 24 hours after receiving the quadrant tray and enclosure that we realised that both items were different sizes.
We had an 800 mm tray with a 900 mm enclosure!
One would have thought that the engineer would have checked this on arrival of the delivery, but no! It wasn’t until he had completely removed the packaging, and had begun building up the frame-work that he noticed that both items were different sizes!
By this time, the new shower tray was already set firmly in place!
O boy!
We had no other choice.
Have you ever seen a guy trying to stuff a white framed glass panelled enclosure with a thousand and one bits and bobs back into its original packaging?
Fun? I don’t think so!
As they say, “It never rains but it pours!”
Anyway, eight days down the road, with one or two other little hiccups along the way, we finally got the new shower enclosure installed!
Friends, at times it may seem that we frequently face unnecessary and unforeseen trouble resulting from unfortunate events.
Now listen, to whatever degree we might experience these disastrous events, let us bear in mind that these are often the situations which strengthen our lives.
Here’s a great quote by Rick Warren, “Every problem is a character-building opportunity, and the more difficult it is, the greater the potential for building spiritual muscle and moral fibre.”
Yes, that’s right, no matter how difficult we might feel things are at times, it will soon become apparent that it’s during those times of turbulence that our faith grows the most.
According to The Message Bible, the Apostle Paul said, “We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue.”1.
Sure-enough – one of the purposes of life is all about character building..
So, let your character shine through – as it’s the foundation of who you are!
1 Romans 5:3-5