Face all your problems...feel the life & joy thru' them...

When Jason Stevens, the 24 yr old who had been living off his uncle's wealth, receives the news of his great uncle Red Steven's death, he is greedy with anticipation-as are Red's other relatives-to divvy up the man's massive fortune.
One by one , Red's beneficiaries receive their portions of the multi billion dollar estate. But when it is at last Jason's turn to collect his inheritance, he is shown a videotape of his uncle saying: "On the first of each month for the next year, you will meet with Mr. Hamilton and Miss Hastings(Red's attorney & assistant) and be given one element of what I call the ultimate gift.If you stay the course over the next year, and embrace each element, at that point you will be the recipient of the most significant bequest I can leave you through my will."
So Jason reports each month and receives "Gift of work, Gift of money, Gift of friends, Gift of learning" as elements for the first 4 months and experiences the value of each.
He reports on the fifth month at Hamilton's office and views the tape and Red comes alive on the screen and says:
“All of the lessons I am trying to teach you as a part of the ultimate gift I am leaving you through my will are generally learned as people go through their lives facing struggles and problems. Any challenge that does not defeat us ultimately strengthens us.

One of the great errors in my life was sheltering so many people—including you—from life’s problems. Out of a misguided sense of concern for your well-being, I actually took away your ability to handle life’s problems by removing them from your environment.
Unfortunately, human beings cannot live in a vacuum forever. A bird must struggle in order to emerge from the eggshell. A well-meaning person might crack open the egg, releasing the baby bird. This person might walk away feeling as though he has done the bird a wonderful service when, in fact, he has left the bird in a weakened condition and unable to deal with its environment. Instead of helping the bird, the person has, in fact, destroyed it. It is only a matter of time until something in the bird’s environment attacks it, and the bird has no ability to deal with what otherwise would be a manageable problem.
If we are not allowed to deal with small problems, we will be destroyed by slightly larger ones. When we come to understand this fact, we live our lives not avoiding problems, but welcoming them as challenges that will strengthen us so that we can be victorious in the future. There are problems heading your way that you are not prepared for.
During the next thirty days, you will begin the preparation. This month, I want you to go out and find people with problems in each stage of life. I want you to find a child, a young adult, a full-grown adult, and an older person—each of whom is experiencing a profound problem. Not only are you to find these four individuals, but you must be able to describe to Mr. Hamilton the benefit or the lesson that is derived from each specific situation.
When we can learn from our own problems, we begin to deal with life. When we can learn from other people’s problems, we begin to master life.
I wish you well, and I hope to talk with you again next month.”
Even though the video had ended, Jason continued staring at the blank screen. He rose slowly and walked toward the door. As he opened it, he paused, turned back toward Miss Hastings and Mr.Hamilton, and said, “I will do my best and call you later.” Then he closed the door behind him.
Miss Hastings turned to Mr.Hamilton and said, “The process seems to be beginning to work. I am detecting a shift in his attitude.”
After the completion of the month, at the appointed hour, Miss Hastings ushered Jason into Mr.Hamilton's office, got him seated, and pulled up a chair for herself. Jason sat silently, seemed very quiet and a bit apprehensive.
Finally, Mr.Hamilton said, “Well, Jason, it’s good to see you again. I assume you have a report on your progress.” Jason glanced up at him and said, “I think I do.” He stared down at his hands, which were folded in his lap, and after a long pause, he slowly began.
“Well, I knew I had to find people with problems from the four age groups. So I started by looking for a child. After almost two weeks—during which I was unable to find anything—I was so frustrated one afternoon, I just went for a walk in the park.
“I was feeling sorry for myself and considering that after all this work I was going to lose my inheritance and whatever this ultimate gift is that my Uncle Red has for me. “Finally, I sat at the end of a bench, and I noticed at the other end of the bench there was a young woman watching a little girl playing on the swing. The woman told me she thought the little girl was really amazing, and in my depressed condition, I was not as kind with her as I should have been because I told her that I didn’t see anything amazing about her six- or seven-year-old daughter playing on a swing set.

She told me, ‘First of all, I’m not her mother, although I wish I were. Second, she’s probably the most amazing person I have ever seen in my life. I am a volunteer at St. Catherine’s Hospital. I work in a program where we try to grant special wishes for terminal patients. Emily has a rare form of cancer. She has been through countless operations and has spent probably half her life in hospitals dealing with great pain.
When we told her that we could try to make a special wish of hers come true, she said she would like a fun day in the park. We told her that many kids went to Disney World or ball games or the beach, but she just smiled and said, ‘That’s very nice, but I’d just like to have a fun day in the park.’”
This woman went on to tell me that Emily had touched everyone in the hospital and had made a real difference in everyone’s life. About that time, Emily stopped swinging and slowly walked across the grass and sat between the two of us on the bench. She turned to me with a smile I’ll never forget and told me that her name was Emily and that this was her special day in the park. She asked me if this was my special day in the park too. I told her that I didn’t think it was, and she laughed and told me that I could share hers with her. 
“So, Mr. Hamilton, I spent the rest of the day in the playground with Emily. I realized that she has more courage and joy in her little seven-year-old body than any normal human being could possibly have. At the end of the day, she was very tired, and the young lady from the hospital had to take her away in a wheelchair. But, before Emily left, she told me that when she got back to the hospital, she would talk to the nurses and see if they could arrange for me to have a special day in the park too.”
Jason paused and looked directly at me. He had a tear in his eye, and Mtr.Hamilton was fighting to control his composure as well. Miss Hastings retrieved a box of tissues and said something about her seasonal allergies. We all sat in silence and thought about a young girl whose problem could affect us so profoundly.
Finally, Jason cleared his throat, wiped his eye, and continued.
“Later that week, I found a middle-aged man walking down the sidewalk in front of my house. He spotted me getting into my car, so he smiled and walked directly over to me. He stuck out his hand and told me his name was Bill Johnson and that my car was one of the most beautiful cars he had ever seen. He told me that he was in the neighborhood doing odd jobs for people and that it would be a privilege to wash a car like mine.
“I asked him why he was out doing odd jobs, and he told me that through a series of corporate cutbacks, both he and his wife had lost their jobs and that they had three young children at home. Both he and his wife were doing anything they could to make ends meet. Apparently, they had gone through their savings, and they were making it just day to day on what they could pick up doing these jobs.
I asked him what would happen if he didn’t get enough money, and he just smiled and told me that there was always enough, and that the problem had created some interesting situations for their family. They were spending more time together than they had before, and their children had learned the value of money and work.
“He chuckled as he recounted an incident the previous week when they had no food other than a little oatmeal. He said he was just about to give up when he heard his wife explaining to their children that many of the pioneers in the Old West went for days at a time eating nothing but oatmeal. He told me that their two youngest boys would probably want to eat only oatmeal from now on, no matter how much money they ever had.”
Jason paused for several moments, searching for the right words, and then he continued, “He went on to tell me about all the wonderful things that he and his wife and family were learning and doing together. He washed my car, and I paid him what he asked. I tried to give him more, but he wouldn’t take it.
“Before he left, I told him that I was sorry for his situation. He just laughed that amazing laugh of his and told me that he felt like he was the luckiest man on earth—that in the whole world, he couldn’t think of anyone he would want to trade places with.”
Jason seemed deep in thought and finally said, “You know what’s funny, Mr. Hamilton? As he was telling me that there was no one in the world he would trade places with, I was thinking to myself that in a lot of ways I would love to trade places with him.”
Miss Hastings supplied the three of us with glasses of water. Jason took a sip of his and resumed his report. “The next day, I was driving past the entrance to a cemetery, and I noticed the largest funeral procession I had ever seen. I didn’t think anything of it, and later that day I was passing back the same way, and out of curiosity, I thought I would drive through and ask one of the workers if it had been a celebrity or something. I drove through the cemetery, and the only person I could see was one very old man standing alone by a grave.
Since the funeral procession I had seen had been several hours before, I assumed he was there on his own. “I got out of my car and approached the old gentleman. When he heard me walking up behind him, he turned in my direction. I told him I was sorry for interrupting him, but that earlier in the day when I was driving by, I had seen the largest funeral procession I had ever witnessed. I told him I was just wondering if he might have known if it was a celebrity or superstar or something.
“He laughed softly and told me it had, indeed, been a celebrity and a superstar. He told me he knew that for a fact because he had lived with her for almost sixty years. Apparently, his wife had been a schoolteacher for forty years and had influenced so many of her students that literally hundreds of them had come in from all parts of the country for her funeral. So, he felt that made her a celebrity and a superstar, both.
“I told him I was sorry for disturbing him on what must be the worst day of his life. He just laughed that quiet laugh again and told me that his life would be different, but that no one who lived sixty years with his Dorothy could ever have a bad day. ‘I was just standing here thanking Dorothy for everything she had done, and I had just promised her I wouldn’t let her down.’”
Jason took another sip of his water, looked at both Miss Hastings and Mr.Hamilton, and continued. “That old man put his arm around my shoulder, and we walked out of the cemetery together. As I was getting in my car, he told me that if there was ever anything he could do for me that I was to call on him. I just sat in my car and watched him slowly drive away.”
Jason seemed to have concluded his report at that point. Mr.Hamilton finally said, “Jason, you found
a child who is living through one of the most difficult problems anyone could face with a joy that it is hard for me to understand. You found a middle-aged man and his family who are dealing with financial crisis while maintaining their sense of family and dignity. You found an older man who has taken a tragedy of death and turned it into a celebration of life. But, Jason, you were to have also found a young person with a problem.” Jason cleared his throat and finally resumed speaking.
“Well, Mr. Hamilton, I know I was supposed to find a young person, and during the month I found several possible candidates, but I have to admit to you today that I couldn’t find any young person who has learned as much from their problem as I have from mine. I have lived my whole life in a selfish and self-centered fashion. I never realized that real people have real problems. It always seemed that problems happened to people on the news or in the movies or something.
“But, thanks to you and my Uncle Red, I finally realized that I have been sheltered from problems, and that I have never learned the wonderful lessons that the people I met this month are learning. I finally know that joy does not come from avoiding a problem or having someone else deal with it for you. Joy comes from overcoming a problem or simply learning to live with it while being joyful.”
Miss Hastings’ allergies seemed to be acting up again at that moment, as she was dabbing at her eyes and nose.
Finally, Jason asked, “Do you think it will be okay if I serve as one of the four people I was supposed to learn from this month?” Mr.Hamilton assured Jason that it met both the spirit and the letter of Red Stevens’ final will and testament. Jason glanced at his watch and said,
“If that’s all, I need to hurry to be at another appointment on time.” And as Miss Hastings was showing him to the door, she asked, “Where are you rushing off to, Jason?” He said,
“I have to meet a special friend in front of the swing set at the park. I will see you both tomorrow.”

Problems can only be avoided by exercising good judgment. 

Good judgment can only be gained by experiencing life’s problems.

- Excerpts from The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall. (A Book that is a must read for everyone, especially the young )