Fog.

In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California.  She'd already been the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways.  The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her.  Still, she swam for fifteen hours.  When she begged to be taken out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat alongside, told her she was close and that she could make it.  Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out.  IT wasn't until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than half a mile away.

At a news conference the next day she said, "All I could see was the fog...I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.
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The theme of perseverance has been on my mind a lot lately and not just because it was what my secretary asked me to write about for our newsletter this month.  I have heard this story about Florence Chadwick previously but as I picked up my scriptures tonight to read them, a small piece of paper folded in half fell out.  I leaned over to pick it up and that very story was typed on a piece of paper.  Rather than call it coincidence, I decided to ponder the analogy.

Sometimes we are so motivated at the beginning of a trial but when we keep trudging and nothing is happening, discouragement sets in.  I should stop here and switch to first person for the remainder of this post because I do get discouraged.  I was joking with my friend Stuart the other day about how things were rough and I was just going to give up.  How easy that would be.  I have come to realize however that the grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side.  Who knows how close I am to the shore, if it is less than a mile away like Florence or if I have just began my long swim.  Either way, giving up doesn't bring forth any blessings.  "Don't let the lack of an immediate answer detract from your faith; double your efforts."

The fog sure is thick in my life and my compass might as well be broken.  So, when I feel like my prayers aren't being answered and my scripture study isn't having an effect on my life... that just means I need to push a little harder.  When things don't go the way we have planned it can definitely be discouraging and as hard as it is to keep on trudging, we will eventually reach the shoreline of blessings.