Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy or Character?

Five Minute Friday's word prompt today is Easy. 

Write for 5 minutes on the prompt, unedited and share your story with a

community of encouraging writers at Kate Motaung.

By Kath

Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy! So says my six year old when faced with a new challenge that she thinks is easy and that she wants to conquer. She's more of an 'I can't' kid than an 'I can', so it's nice to hear her say that it's easy.
We like easy, don't we? I guess it makes us feel more confident, strong, safe, in control.
Hard is, well, hard. It can make us feel insecure, weak, inadequate, out of control.
But we need hard and we need to do hard until it becomes easy or at least more natural.
Easy doesn't really help us grow. My six year old doesn't like to read. Oh, she likes to be able to read, but she doesn't like the process of learning how to read, of having to face new words, new sounds, unfamiliar word forms, a new story she hasn't seen before, so the 'I can't's come out at each new word or sound or page.
But then I remind her how easy those older pages are now, that weren't so easy, not so long ago.
Hard makes us grow, and we need to do hard.

I wonder how much easier it would be for us if we didn't complain about the hard God gives us? Are we expecting too much easy from God? Loving my child means challenging her to do 'hard' stuff, stuff that's not easy for her, because I don't want her to stay where she is developmentally. I want her to grow and to conquer and to learn and to be confident.
Sometimes, I think we hear too much of how easy God will make things for us. But, God does hard and He challenges us, because He knows we need hard till it becomes easy. And some things never become easy, but doing hard sometimes gets easier, not because it is easy, but because we're stronger for having tried and worked and flexed and practised hard. And we can do hard easier because the Lord who slept through the storm on the boat, is with us in our storm, and not somewhere else.
Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.