Fire Tests Gold
Hey team. All right, so here we are, and I’m so excited to be here with you guys again this week. I just wanted to share with you another quote that I read recently: Fire tests gold. The ocean tests ships.
If you want to know if you’ve built a strong ship, take it out on the ocean. If you want to know the quality of gold, test it with fire. Adversity is what tests men. It’s our hardships, our failures, our ability to get back up. It’s the test of adversity that shapes us. The hard things we go through reveal our capabilities and strengthen us over time.
When you heat up gold, all the impurities rise to the top. You scoop those off, and that’s called dross. That process purifies the gold and makes it more valuable.
The ocean will test whether you are a good shipbuilder. Waves will batter and hit and rise against that ship, and it’s got to be able to handle the pressure and being tossed around. In a very similar way, the hardships we go through, though no one wants them, test our resilience.
I know I don’t want to go through hard things, but I’ve come to realize that those tough moments in life are what test my ability and strengthen me to handle the next thing. The bigger thing, the tougher thing. And that connects with our core values: our resolve to stick through it and handle adversity.
That’s how we grow, by handling pressure and pain. Life has pressure, life has pain. Life has tough things. But pressure plus pain, multiplied by our perseverance, is what brings power and prosperity into our lives.
If you give up every time things get hard, it’s going to be a tough road. Some of you remember last year when I taught David how to ride his bike. He was crying and weeping, big crocodile tears, saying horrible things like, “When is mommy coming home?” and “Daddy, I don’t like you.” He wanted to give up. But I wouldn’t let him.
I talked to him about resolve and the importance of sticking to it so he wouldn’t quit.
A couple of weeks ago, just a week or so ago, we were on one of our first bike rides together. We were riding around and having fun, and he said, “I’m getting better at riding bikes, Dad.” I said, “You are! You’re amazing. Aren’t you glad we spent the time learning how?” And he said, “Yeah, it was kind of tough, but I learned.”
He didn’t remember the crocodile tears. He didn’t remember the yelling. The screaming, the refusal, the resistance. He didn’t remember any of that. He just remembered that he conquered it, that he accomplished it, that he made it. And that he loves riding his bike.
He just bought a new bike. It’s amazing. It’s a 20-inch BMX bike, and he’s loving it. He’s riding every day. Last week, he came downstairs in the morning and said, “Dad, can I go ride my bike for a few minutes before school starts?” He’s in a hurry to spend more time on that bike.
He doesn’t remember the adversity. But Dad remembers. I remember the feeling, the hurt inside when he said those horrible things and the struggle of pushing him to do the hard thing. But he doesn’t remember how hard it was. He only remembers the joy.
That’s what adversity does. Once we get past it, we tend to forget how painful or hard it really was. We remember that it was tough, but not as tough as we thought because we conquered it. And we remember the joy, not the pain.
Everybody wants beautiful, pure, well-shaped gold—a ring, a pendant, a chain. But we forget the fire it had to go through to get there. We love a good journey, maybe even going on a cruise, but we don’t think about all the engineering that went into building that ship.
So when adversity hits, remember, it’s there for a reason. And you’re going to enjoy being on the other side just as much as David enjoys riding his brand-new bike today. He doesn’t remember how hard it was to learn. He only remembers how joyful it is now.
All right, God bless you guys. I’ll see you next week. Remember: let’s be valuable. Nothing less will do.
