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Are bad experiences truly bad?
When you go through bad experiences in life there is more to it than something negative happening to you.
Bad experiences causes maturity where you learn valuable lessons that will help you make better choices and cause you to become wiser.
Bad things that happen to you cause you to build character. You may be placed in a situation that is not ideal but while there, you learn many things like: patience, understanding, forgiveness, humility, selflessness, self-control, love and more.
Let's take patience for instance, while waiting to have something better, you start to have an appreciation for what you have now, teaching you to be grateful. Also, in the process you start to see how beneficial it is to be patient in situations as opposed to being hasty, because hastiness may cause you to make bad choices or mistakes which leads to disappointment.
Bad things allow you to understand in areas you were once naive to. You will realize that we are always in a state of learning and growing; and instead of becoming despair, find ways to see the lesson being taught.
Furthermore, you will have compassion and tolerant with people when they mess up because before you knew what you now know, you mismanaged or mishandled situations too. You will be understanding because they are going through the same circumstances you once went through.
Bad things remind you that you are not invincible; realizing that we are all vulnerable to things happening to us that we don’t like or cannot avoid.
Experiences like these are sobering, but with God all things work together for good to them that love Him and are called according to His purpose ( Romans 8:28 ).
When you have a relationship with God, bad things create good results. You may not understand the purpose or reason right away, but if you stand firm, don’t waiver, and trust God, you will see the outcome and the reason for your experience.
You will understand how bad situations help create purpose in your life, and how they can turn things around for you, reversing the experience into something successful and purposeful.
There are many things that God protects us from by either taking them away or by preventing us from having them.
Or He allows us to go through experiences we want to get out of; and because we may not understand why we're in that situation, we get mad not realizing it saved our life.
If your life is in God’s hand then nothing can just happen to you without God’s approval. So, if it happened then it is for your good.
The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing – Psalm 34:10.
You are part of God’s design and purpose; part of a bigger picture, and for you to stay on track, bad things must play its role in your life.
Knowing this will allow you to look at bad things differently. Instead of getting mad, angry, disappointment, frustrated, confused, irritated, or sad you will know there is meaning behind the discomfort.
And as painful as the bad experience may have been or will be, you will go through the experience understanding in the end there is something better, bigger, and greater prepared.
Bad experiences happen to all of us and how you react to them is what will make the difference. If it is handled well, it can be the catalyst to your success. However, if it is not handled properly, then it can be the stimulus that will take your life down into misfortune.
You have the power to be the person you want to be even through bad experiences. With encouragement, vision, and focus you will be able to ride your storms of life and soar above them like an eagle.
Remember to read the Bible, for it is your guide for life and how you will grow and mature. Most importantly, it is where you will find Scriptures that will lift you out of your own bad experiences (Romans 8:28, Romans 5:3-5, Jeremiah 29:11).
Here are some more Scriptures for you to meditate on during your times of bad experiences:
