don't lose heart when life gets hard

sometimes life gets hard. 
and sometimes the hard lasts a long time. 
and no matter how hard or how long we pray, it seems like nothing changes. 
the hard is still there. and the hard has a sneaky way of turning into hopelessness. 
we become stuck in discouragement. we become overwhelmed by despair. 
because we think there's no way out. 
no way that would make us happy. no way that would give us peace. 
but if we hang on we find that the hard is what makes us better. 
the hard is what builds us. 
the hard is what gives us hope. 
like muscles that need to be worked to become stronger, the hard is what gives us strength. 
it doesn't feel that way when we're in the middle of it, especially when the middle stretches on for what seems like forever, but God has a way of taking the hard and helping us. 
He has a way of taking the hard and healing us. 
He has a way of taking the hard we thought would literally break our hearts and changing it into the grace that gives us new ones.

^"16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:16-18