Never Give Up!

When I first moved to North Ogden in 2008 I didn't have enough money to pay for internet or television service. This left me with very little to do in order to entertain myself. I started looking for something that would keep up my interests as well as fill my time. While browsing around Walmart one day I found a puzzle that was a picture made up of a million other little pictures. It looked like something that would definitely take up a lot of time, so I made the purchase.

At home I cleared off my table and dumped out the box of puzzle pieces. My first thought..."This is going to be harder than I expected." Piece by piece I started putting the puzzle together. I got excited when I started to see sections of it coming together. I gained a new sense of accomplishment with each completed section. However, it did turn out to be harder than I thought and several times along the way I considered packing it all back in the box and calling it quits. The puzzle took up my entire kitchen table and I was getting sick of eating off the floor. I was also frustrated that I had pieces that I was sure were from an entirely different puzzle. Day by day I kept going back to my puzzle. Some days I would just sit and stare at it never finding a piece to put together, other days I'd only place one puzzle piece, and some days I'd luck out and find several pieces that fit together. One by one the pieces came together to create a beautiful puzzle.

I was thrilled the day I placed the final piece of the puzzle in it's correct spot. I had worked so hard on this puzzle that I didn't want to take it apart. I bought some puzzle glue and permanently sealed the pieces together. I told myself I was going to frame it and hang it up so that I always have the physical reminder that I can do hard things.

Six years later I was gearing up to move back home and I found my puzzle tucked behind the bookshelf still unframed. I worked so hard to finish the puzzle, but then gave up when I struggled to find the perfect frame to fit it in. I hid it away and forgot about it. Upon finding the puzzle a renewed sense of determination came over me and I decided it didn't matter if I couldn't find a frame to fit it perfectly. It was more important to simply have it framed than to have it framed perfectly. It took me six years, but I finally added the final

"puzzle" piece and hung up my masterpiece.

Do you have anything in your life that you've started and are struggling to finish? Are you frustrated because the puzzle pieces of your life don't seem to fit together? Is there something you felt was too hard to accomplish so you hid it away and forgot about it?

Just like my experience with this puzzle. Life needs to be handled day by day, piece by piece. We all get frustrated when things don't go the way we planned or come together when we want them to, but eventually things always work out and we find that the puzzle comes together in the end, the trick is to never give up. No matter what your puzzle looks like or how difficult it seems to finish, keep picking up the pieces and doing your best every single day. It may take a week, six years, or a lifetime to fully finish your puzzle, but I promise someday it will come together and you'll realize it was worth every frustrating minute along the way.