I am confident to know now that the hardest situations can produce some of the best people.  Something I've struggled with for quite a while is maintaining my faith in God during the hard times in my life.  I feel like the American culture of Christianity, or at least my perception of it, leads me to believe that if I'm not "happy," God is not happy with me.  That is not true.  If I am not happy, I'm probably in the process of growing closer to Him.  I can either embrace that opportunity or not. I can either draw closer to knowing Him and only Him, or not.  Faith is believing, despite how you feel, and the feeling comes from knowing who God is- which may or may not happen, but faith is pursuing Him, even through the times of struggle.

I know that I can only give my all to Him, and that means giving my free time to learning His will for my life- even though I hurt, I know His will is good.