by Haley Williamson
Life is supposed to be bittersweet. It can be compared to eating. If you only eat sweets, you will eventually get sick, ruin your appetite and upset your stomach.When it comes to bitter food it takes some time to get over the bitterness, and once you do, it can become bearable. However, a healthy diet has to have both sweet and bitter foods.
The same is true of life. You can’t have a life that is only full of good moments and happy memories. It also can’t be only composed of times when you are bitter, sad or hurt.
If we lived a life only composed of sweet things, it would get old and we would lose appreciation of the little things that bring joy. We would also lose sight of what we are living for because nothing would have been fought for.
If everything is always good, and you know it always will be good, how do you figure out what is worth fighting for? What should you put your heart into or invest in if no matter what, it will work out for the best?
Then turn the scenario around and imagine what life would be like with only the bitter? It would be discouraging and difficult if everything led to pain and sorrow.
The same questions would remain, what would be worth fighting for and pouring your all into if everything just turned out wrong?
That is why we need a bittersweet life because it makes life worth living for.
When life is hard, it makes us want to strive, grow and change.
When hard times come, we know there will be a better day; we can put our hope in the fact that the bitterness won’t last forever.
That notion that this bitterness won’t last forever gives people a reason to keep moving and living.
Then, when life is good, we want to continually pursue that passion or feeling and see what else God has in store.
These times of joy make the hard times bearable because we know what happiness and sweetness tastes like.
When those times of sweetness come around, they are more likely to be appreciated and taken as a blessing and not just an everyday occurrence.
We can’t live life only pursuing the good or only focusing on the bad. Life is meant to be bittersweet, with the balance of God’s faithfulness and goodness.
Contact Haley Williamson at hwilliamson15@my.whitworth.edu