Object: Put some beautiful flowers in a paper sack. Bring them out when you talk about flowers.

Lesson: To think about using hard times for personal growth.

Special Instructions: This illustration should be used in the spring when there have been a lot of rainy days.

There is an old saying that reminds us of what has been happening this week. Let me see if any of you have heard it: "April showers bring ..." ("May flowers." Share your flowers.) We need to have rain in order for things to grow. Without the showers, there would be no flowers. This fact of life helps us to understand what often happens to us in life. We usually think of rainy days as dark and stormy. They may …