Rather than focusing too much on myself, it makes everything easier when I start to focus on what God has to do through me. When we look at ourselves again and again, we only become more embarrassed and timid, for we know we aren't perfect. However, when we look at God, that's the time we are able to reach out with dignity and the heavenly authority that comes from above.

Following is the poem that expresses the heart of the one who has faced difficulty but turned the situation around as he realized the true ways of God:

Asking God
I asked God for strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked God for health that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise for men.
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for--
but everything that I hoped for. . .
Almost, despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men most richly blessed.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.