thank the Lord for letting you have the ride

There’s a saying that goes, “Expectations are premeditated resentments.”

“Wait, what?” you might think. “Aren’t expectations a good thing?”

President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) once quoted columnist Jenkins Lloyd Jones, who said:

“Anyone who imagines that bliss … is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed.

“[The fact is] … most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. …

“Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.

“The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”

Holly Hudson

"Managing Unrealistic Expectations," YA Weekly April 2021. See also Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Conversation with Single Adults,” Ensign, Mar. 1997, 60.