A Godly LifeSample

School of hardship We love hero stories. We love sports and romance and war stories of talent and leadership and brilliance and beauty and charm. What are not so compelling are the stories of the training and hardship and early failures that went before. Moses is one of God’s greatest champions — leader of the exodus from Egyptian slavery, receiver of the Old Covenant on Mt. Sinai, author of five Bible books. But all that came from the last third of his life. The middle third consisted of four decades of working as a shepherd boy for a Bedouin in the Sinai Desert. But God knew that he would never have grown into a great leader if he had not first attended the school of hardship. Moses grew up a pampered prince in the royal Egyptian court. He could have averted his eyes from the cruelty of Egyptian enslavement of the Israelites. He could have enjoyed an easy life and stayed in the palace. Instead, “by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward” (Hebrews 11:24-26). Don’t be afraid of God’s school of hardship. He may have a special mission planned for you.