Everybody at one time or another has read the comic strip "Peanuts" by Charles Schulz. If you have, you can't help but love Charlie Brown. In one of the classic cartoons, Charlie Brown is at the beach building a beautiful sandcastle. He has worked on it all day long and as he stands back to admire his finished work, it is suddenly consumed by a huge wave. Looking at the smooth sand mound that had been his creation just a moment before, with that forlorn look, Charlie Brown says, "There must be a lesson here, but I don't know what it is."

If you haven't learned this already, you will. One of the greatest teachers in life is trouble. Quite honestly, you will learn far more in the hard times than you ever will in the good times. Today, I want to ask a very simple question and for many of you…