The Seven Fruits of Suffering

1. Hunger.

"The enemy of great success is small success." Success causes you to slow down, demotivate you and makes you content. You will no longer aim for a better life if you're comfortable living your good life. Suffering makes you hungry again, motivates you and propels you to greater success.

2. Harvest.

When we suffer, we must pull away or walk away from our "bullies"; toxic people, stressful career, self-inflicted problems or bad habits or addictions that are affecting our lives so we can have a momentum. The greater the hunger, the greater the harvest.

3. Humility.

There are two teachers in life---Teacher Trial and Teacher Triumph. Both are great teachers but Teacher Trial is more effective. When you suffer from trials you become teachable. Triumph makes you proud and so you're not open to what life teaches you. You learn more when you suffer because you're humble enough to accept the lessons that life presents.

4. Hardiness.

You become more enduring and tougher when you suffer. There's a direct connection between the size of your comfort zone and the size of your success. The bigger your comfort zone the more successful you are, because you'll stretch out more to make your comfort zone wider.

5. Healing.

You get wounds when you suffer, and these wounds turn into scars in time. Your scars can inspire others who are in the same situation that you used to be in. You become a wounded healer.  

6. Holiness. 

There are times when there's nothing left for you to do but pray, even when you don't feel like praying. Personally, I'm glad we Catholics have memorized prayers. It came to a point when I don't know what to pray for anymore. I was all prayed up, I said. That's when I learned to appreciate the power of memorized prayers. It's an instant relief when you don't know what to do anymore. Suffering pushes you to converse more often with God.

7. Heaven.

 In all your sufferings on earth, you'll realize that your real happiness will only be in heaven. 

"Tough times don't last but tough people do." You will outlive all your problems.  

God is not a sadistic selfish God who sits on His throne and takes delight when He sees His people suffer. 

Our faith tells us that everything is part of His divine plan. All things are intended for our good. Let's focus on the prize and not on the obstacles.

We all suffered (or are still suffering) at some point. The important thing to remember is not why we suffer but what we get after we suffer; what the fruit of our suffering will be. The big message:

The greater the pull back, the greater the come back. 

If life is pulling you back and you feel like time is standing still, nothing is happening and your suffering seems endless, it just means that life is preparing you for a great come back.  

If God brought us to it, He will bring us through it.