by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
It’s not what happens to you that matters so much as what you do with what happens to you. Who would have thought that Helen Keller would have mattered so much with all the handicaps she was dealt in life? Great people of great faith learn to turn trials into stepping stones to climb higher in faith and turn a trial into an opportunity.<\/p>\n
There are two choices we have before us when bad things happen to us:<\/p>\n
Since you are in a race for a prize (I Corinthians 9:24-27), and endurance is key to obtaining the prize, know that if you choose option #2, you are strengthening your ability to get there, but if you choose option #1 (self-pity and loss of heart) you are most likely to give up and miss out on the prize. Choose option #2, and develop durability for the prize ahead in Christ!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton It’s not what happens to you that matters so much as what you do with what happens to you. Who would have thought that Helen Keller would have mattered so much with all the handicaps she was dealt in life? Great people of great faith learn to turn trials into stepping…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[374,188],"class_list":["post-61721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-happiness","tag-trials"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68062,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-any-of-you-lacks-wisdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":61721,"position":0},"title":"If Any of You Lacks Wisdom","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton James speaks of the wisdom to see our trials as opportunities to perfect our faith and develop durability, endurance, or patience. We can choose to count it all joy, see how to grow deeper in faith, or we can let the trials beat us down and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30958,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-trials-be-counted-as-joy\/","url_meta":{"origin":61721,"position":1},"title":"How can trials be counted as joy?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I struggle with the idea of being joyful during trials. I know James said, \"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58557,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/patience-the-art-of-persevering-in-this-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":61721,"position":2},"title":"Patience: The Art of Persevering in this Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Forrest D. Moyer As Peter continued to list the characteristics that one must add, he named \"patience\" as being essential in our lives to keep us from falling and to insure us a part in the \"everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior\" (II Peter 1:5-11). James wrote: \"Indeed,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88642,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-so-hard\/","url_meta":{"origin":61721,"position":3},"title":"Is It So Hard?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson Does the Christian life at times seem more than you can bear? May these thoughts from Hebrews chapter 12 encourage you! Others Have Overcome \"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [the heroes of faith in chapter 11], let us also lay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32895,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/james-on-trials\/","url_meta":{"origin":61721,"position":4},"title":"James on Trials","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: James 1:1-27 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The book of James is written to Jewish Christians who were scattered by persecution - Acts 8:1-4 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is one indication that James is one of the first books written \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is that persecution that sets up the theme for the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63739,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/one-last-verse\/","url_meta":{"origin":61721,"position":5},"title":"One Last Verse","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford Throughout my life, there was a series of verses that I identified as \"my verse\". These were verses that, in some way, exemplified me or what I needed to become. I kept II Timothy 2:24-25 on my bathroom mirror for years because I needed the reminder.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}