“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 N.I.V)

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 -1962) served Americans as a first lady for the four political terms her husband was president. She is admired as a champion in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, housing, women’s rights, human rights, and the United Nations. She wrote twenty-seven books, more than 8,000 columns, and over 555 articles. Her nationally syndicated newspaper column “My day” (1935 -1962 at its height received a readership of 4,034,552.

These accomplishments resulted from her determination to gain confidence and independence as she struggled with various adverse situations. She overcame an unhappy childhood where she felt ugly and unappreciated to a position where she could say, “No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful”.  Later in life she had to endure a hostile mother in law. When she learned about her husband’s betrayal, she found strength in pursuing an independent public life. And when her husband contracted polio; she successfully took charge of his reelection campaign. She said later, “Every time you meet a situation you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before.”

Do not allow your adverse situation to ground you. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude”, and “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do”. Eleanor Roosevelt