William Barclay declared, "Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory." (www.worldofquotes.com)
I like this because it reminds me to expect more of myself when I am enduring something difficult and it provides me with hope that there can be a positive outcome to what I am experiencing. This past school year was a great challenge to me. I was at a new school, teaching new subjects (AP Statistics and Precalculus). I was required to put in many many extra hours on almost a daily basis just to stay ahead with my lesson plans. The school culture was also quite different and took me a while to grow accustomed to. It was easy to slip into the mindset of "just endure, this too shall pass," but then I came across this quote and I thought, "I want to do more than survive this, I want to turn it into glory!" Ultimately I was able to build a large number of new friendships and I learned a great deal of mathematics that has already begun to benefit me professionally. I am now very grateful that I had the school year I did.
Christ taught, "Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life" (3 Nephi 15:9).
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf has explained, "... [E]nduring to the end is not just a matter of passively
tolerating life’s difficult circumstances or “hanging in there.” Ours is
an active religion, helping God’s children along the strait and narrow
path to develop their full potential during this life and return to Him
one day. Viewed from this perspective, enduring to the end is exalting and glorious, not grim and gloomy" ("Have We Not Reason to Rejoice?" Ensign, Nov. 2007, emphasis added).
