There once lived a blacksmith who withstood the trials of life with grace and dignity, no matter what misfortune befell him. "How can you have such strong faith when things go wrong?" someone once asked him.
"When you work with iron," explained the blacksmith, "you take a piece and stick it in the fire. After a while, you take it out and pound it once or twice to see if it takes temper. It it does, you stick it in the water to cool it off and then put it back into the fire. When it gets white hot, you pound it into something, but if the iron won't take temper, you throw it into the scrap heap.
"Strong faith is really no different. If you can withstand stress and adversity - the heat and pounding of life - then you'll come away from it with greater character than you had before. But if you can't take such challenges, you'll end up on the scrap heap of life." Jacob M. Braude, editor Prentice-Hall
