To persevere means I keep working hard, even when we feel like quitting. Endurance, persistence and stick-to-it-iveness blossom only during trials, hard times and productive struggles. Perseverance is nothing anyone can give us. Instead, it is a character trait we develop in the midst of challenging times.

Not Necessarily Fun

I should have known that when I fell in love and married a carpenter I would encounter physical strains, tough ventures and seemingly impossible obstacles. 

Before we married, my future husband shared his dream with me. He wanted to buy acreage and build a house. All I could imagine in my mind was the finished product; a finished house sitting on a manicured lawn. The process of clearing a piece of property and building the house, for some reason, never entered my mind. May I just say that I started out in marriage very much in love, but quite naive as well.

Neither my husband nor I had much money, but we had a wealthy friend who graciously loaned us $5,000, without interest. With this, we purchased a five acre parcel at the end of a long and bumpy county road. The land was raw with no water or electricity. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but thick buck brush and lodgepole pine trees. Standing next to the man I’d soon marry, I breathed in the sweet smelling air, turned my ear to the sound of the creek that bordered our property and again imagined our finished house sitting on a manicured lawn.  

Nearing our wedding date, we found a source for cheap lumber with which to build our home; a two story wood framed house that needed to be torn down. We met with the owners, gave them $500 and agreed to complete the job in thirty days. Then, we committed ourselves to the work.  

First, we cleared a building site for that house I envisioned on that manicured lawn. After work and every weekend, I sweated alongside the man I’d soon marry. With long handled axes, we chopped and chopped and chopped some more at the brush. With blistered hands, sore arms and a stiff neck, I exchanged my vision of a manicured lawn for a lot simply clean enough to build a house on. 

Next, I became an expert with a hammer and a cat’s paw. I cleaned  the 2x4s that my soon to be husband extracted from the walls of the old house we agreed to tear down. A few friends came by to help on occasion and a few days before our wedding, my future in-laws arrived on the job site too. 

With dust up my nose, dirt under my nails and a body that ached from head to toe, I wondered if I’d made the right choice to marry this carpenter, this man who tirelessly worked at fulfilling his dream. 

The wedding was simple, the honeymoon postponed and back to work we went. We finished tearing down that house right on schedule and moved into our partially completed home. Over the next few years we continued the work; putting in a well, securing money for electricity and finishing the house. 

Through all that labor, I nearly threw in the towel, came close to giving up, and almost left that man who tirelessly labored. But I didn’t. Instead, I learned from him, the value of  perseverance, persistence and stamina; vital ingredients to any good marriage. 

The tough work we did at the beginning of our marriage laid the foundation for its future. The productive struggle I encountered with tearing down one house, building another, waiting for electricity and running water only prepared me to endure the other tough trials that came along later. Those other trials included the death of a child and a rebellious teenager. 

Why bother persevering? As tough as a present trial may seem, it may be exactly what is needed to prepare us for whatever might be up ahead.