Daily Divine: What is the purpose of bad things in my life?

We have this tendency to label something as “good” or something as “bad.”
 
But in reality, if there were no challenges to work through, we wouldn’t grow very much.
 
The “bad” things are like the stone in our shoe that keeps irritating us as we walk on our path: it bothers us and bothers us and bothers us, until we finally stop, take off our shoe and take a long, hard look at the problem.
 
When we look at the problem, instead of avoiding it, we get clear.
This is where growth happens.
 
If we are in the middle of a rough patch, where there is a lot of pain, chaos, drama—maybe we need to look at how we are approaching our lives, maybe we need to make changes.
 
Or sometimes we’re very present in our lives, and bad things happens anyway. Why is this?
 
The soul answer is that everything is a lesson that moves us to greater expansion.
Everything is an opportunity to expand further in our understanding.
 
And yet the human answer is that it’s very hard to be grateful when bad things happen.
 
If you can’t find gratitude at the moment, just feel what you feel. It is enough to be authentic for now. When, over time, you look back and recognize the lesson  you were being taught, the gratitude will come of its own accord.
 
Much love,
SARA