Gratitude - Day 3 - Am I insane if I say "challenges"?

I still remember once sitting in church and listening to someone say that they "loved their challenges" and having immediate feelings of wanting to call B.S. on that statement. 

Seriously?  No one "loves" their challenges.  Human beings typically strive to keep a life that is as challenge free as possible.  It's normal and we all do it, some of us more succesfully than others, but that's the goal.  It is the basis of the concept of human motivation to some extent or other, whether you're talking about subconscious pleasure seeking principles, biological needs, or almost any other human motivation that intercedes in our life - the end goal is roughly the same, we don't want to be too challenged and we want to be comfortable, and if we are challenged, we'd like to choose what those challenges are - there is nothing people hate more than being subjected to unpredictable challenges. 

So I would hesisitate to say that I appreciate my challenges, trials, bad luck, or disasters. 

But I have to admit, I am a better person because of them. 

No one really grows when nothing in your life ever goes wrong.  We maybe wish it worked that way - but it doesn't.

No one can avoid things going wrong either.  Sometimes, things just will go awry.

I have always known that attitude is everything.  But boy, do I ever understand that now better than anytime in my life. 

The trouble is that sometimes when things go in the complete opposite way that we would have wished for, we handle it terribly.  And sometimes this causes a chain reaction of bad choices and more bad consequences that are then very very hard to start digging ourselves out of.  The truth is that sometimes, we are causing some of our own challenges. 

Some things you can't avoid and they are not your fault.  Some things you bring on yourself.  But in either case, now it's up to you how you're going to deal with it. 

I saw a quote the other day that said something along the lines of 'How people treat you is their karma, how you deal with it is yours'.  And this is true of everything in your life.

I still don't have this completely down in such a way that I actually welcome challenges like that woman at church said she did.  I am still always going to prefer a challenge free day to a challenge filled day (and for the record, I think that is a normal and healthy way to think!  It's psychologically sound!).

But I do want to recognize that anything I've had to deal with - whether it is a small problem or a very big one - has added something important to my life and who I am.