--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Wootton, A. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 2 number: 12 published: 1899-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Wootton, A., "Life’s Obstructions," *Improvement Era* 2, no. 12 (October 1899): 907–908.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera212unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera212unse start_page: 907 end_page: 908 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera212unse publication_year: 1899 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Life’s Obstructions LIFE'S OBSTRUCTIONS, BY A. WOOTTON. It is often said that in order to appreciate the sweet it is neces- sary to taste the bitter. Whether this be true or not, there is one thing certain, that is that few, indeed, pass through the world without a goodly degree of bitterness mixed with what sweet may fall to their lot; and that it has its purposes in the economy of the Creator, there can be no doubt. All will agree that it is not the pampered sons and daughters of luxury and ease that accomplish the most for the world or that build up the noblest characters for themselves, but rather those who have been beset by difficulties and have become strong by the exercise of those powers necessary to overcoming them, while continual affluence and ease tend to engender effeminacy and uselessness. While all are striving to avoid the rougher walks of life with their troubles, perplexities disappointments, mistakes and strug- gles, and deem them bad things to experience, many look back upon them as good things to have experienced, and will never tire of recounting them and making themselves the heroes of thrilling tales of unpleasant reminiscences. From this we could infer that good might accrue from having passed through difficulties. Whether such is the case will depend on the individual, and there is nothing like trials of a severe nature to test the man. A man does not know himself until he has passed through the fur- nace of trial and temptation. The wise man will make the difficulties over which he stum- bles stepping stones to scale the parapet of success, and he who encounters the most difficulties, if he has the wisdom to utilize them to the best advantage, rises to the greater height. It is the 908 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . battlefield and the shipwreck that bring out in bold relief those qualities of manhood that distinguish the hero, without which his better qualities might have remained unknown even to himself. Such trying conditions often unmask the braggart, the hypo- crite and the craven, and thus separate the gold from the dross. Real misfortune is not in the encountering of difficulties but in succumbing to them. Troubles that would prove disastrous to one and crush him to the earth might tend to strengthen another and spur him on to greater endeavor. Success consists not in never failing, but in recovering from failure; not in never falling, but in rising from each fall; not in never making mistakes, but in learning wisdom and humility from them; not in never having sinned, but in having repented, and reformed, not in never having sorrow, but in being refined and purified by it; not in never having weaknesses, but in rising above them in the strength of noble manhood. The trials of life make men flexible, that they will bend rather than break. They make them scan their own lives more carefully and compare them with others, and thus they are able to measure their powers more accurately and understand themselves better. The smooth things of life have but little effect on the character. water that cleanses, fire that purifies, friction It is that polishes. The memory of life's difficulties tends to restrain the superfluities of enthusiasm and ambition, modify the temper, soften the heart in sympathy for the suffering, fill it with charity for the failings of the erring, and to generally humanize and round out the character. Although many of the experiences of life were bitter at the time, none but the coward or the unre- pentant would be willing to have them erased from memory's tablets; but the wise will cherish them as tools to dress and polish the stones for the erection of a temple more enduring, grand and beautiful than any built by human hands —the temple of a pure, noble and exalted character.