It's a hard knock life for us .... or is it?

"It's the hard-knock life for us

Empty belly life!
Rotten smelly life!
Full of sorrow life!
No tomorrow life!

It's the hard-knock life!"

From the catchy tune in Annie about the less than ideal life of an orphan girl. And it truly was a hard-knock life for Annie and her friends. And lately hardship and struggle has been the theme of a lot of my leisure reading. Our favorite homeschooling subject, by a long shot is history and this year we are studying American History.  I am finding myself more engaged than ever before. In part, because having grown up in Namibia, I never studied American History in school. I can tell you a little about Jan van Riebeck, Bartholomeu Dias and Simon van der Stel, with an emphasis on a little. (Lord help my kids if they remember as little history as I do from my childhood, but who am I kidding :-)

But whether or not my kids will remember much of their countries' history, I am learning a lot about the founding of the country I now call "home".  Just this month, aided by our flight to and from the west coast, I read two great books and watched the riveting movie 12 years a slave, all of which I want to recommend to you; but I also want to process with you the concept of HARDSHIP.

My first read was a fascinating biography of William Bradford, the pilgrims first governor. This man was met with incredible rejection and loss from a very early age which without a doubt shaped him and prepared him for the incredible task that awaited him when he set foot on American soil. How he kept that fledgling and fragile community moving forward and grounded in their Christian faith as their governor for 31 long and unbelievably hard years is dumbfounding. I am not a quitter but I tell you I would have thrown in the towel!


 My second read was  Carry on Mr Bowditch, a #1 bestselling historical children's novel, which is based on the real life of Nathaniel Bowditch.  This extremely bright kid who is destined for Harvard

gets his dream stolen from him due to the hardships of growing up just post the American Revolution. Life was not only hard economically but beyond that, death was part of every day life and Nat faces the tragedy of no less than 8 deaths in his family in a reasonably short time period. And while we may think what a morbid book for children to read, the fact is that that was reality for children back then.  And it shaped them in a powerful way.

William Bradford and Nathaniel Bowditch, along with countless other children in history, were molded at a very young age by death, suffering and hardship. It made them the incredible people they became. They were shaped by it in ways, that it seems, nothing else could have shaped them. It made them movers and shakers. It made them people of incredible character.  And they were used to change the world.

And so I find myself pondering this very fact. You see life is very good for me and my children. We honestly lack no good thing. And don't get me wrong, I am not wishing death, suffering and hardship upon us. Who would?! But I am just wondering about this life of so called privilege we lead and what it's not teaching us.  This easy life where we talk of hardship in terms of the LONG Boston winter.

Or where the biggest hardship my son has faced lately is the fact that his basketball team lost in the first round of the playoffs today. And it's a rough one for the sport loving fanatic that he is. And I feel the loss too. I am seriously bummed! The team is made of a bunch of great kids and they have an awesome couch, in none other than Zach's daddy :-)  But still it's only a  game and life remains pretty peaches.


So I ask....  if it's not a hard knock life for us then what is shaping and molding us to be movers and shakers, the way hardship did for people like Bradford and Bowditch?


PS:  feel free to engage in the comment section below or on facebook.