Picture of a sunrise I took a couple of days ago. November 2017.
Perfect picture for a Bible verse.

The Sting of Pearls

Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life
Charles R. Swindoll
Got your yellow pad and nickel pencil out? If not, just stop long enough to make a mental list of some of the things that irritate you. Here are a few suggestions that will get you started.
Traffic jams, cold food, squeaking doors, talkative people, interruptions, incompetence, long lines, reminders, flat tires, crying babies, deadlines, balancing checkbooks, phone calls, nosy neighbors, doing dishes, misplaced keys, being rushed, mother-in-law, untrained pets, late planes, weeds, stuck zippers, tight clothes, high prices, peeling onions.
Any of those make you want to grind your teeth? Some of it sounds like today, doesn't it? It's easy to get the feeling that you can't win-no matter how hard you try. You start to entertain the thought I saw printed rather hurriedly on a small wooden plaque several weeks ago:
I am planning to have a nervous breakdown. I have earned it...I deserve it...I have worked hard for it...and nobody's going to keep me from having it!
If it weren't for irritations we'd be very patient, wouldn't we? We could wade calmly through life's placid sea and never encounter a ripple. Unfortunately,  irritations comprise the major occupational hazard of the human race. One of these days it should dawn upon our minds that we'll never be completely free from irritations as long as we tread Planet Earth. Never. Upon arriving at such a profound conclusion, it would be wise to consider an alternative to losing our cool. The secret is ADJUSTING.
Sure, that sounds simple. But, it isn't.  Several things tend to keep us on the ulcerated edge of irritability. If we lived in the zoo, the sign outside our cage might read: "HUMAN BEING - CREATURE OF HABIT." We tend to develop habit reactions, wrong though they may be. We are also usually in a hurry...inordinately wedded to the watch on our wrist. Furthermore, many of our expectations for the day are unrealistic. Echoing in our heads are the demanding voices of objectives that belong to a week, rather than a single day. All of this makes the needle on our inner pressure gauge whirl like Mario Andretti's tachometer. When you increase the heat to our highly pressurized system by a fiery irritation or two...or three...BOOM! Off goes the lid and out comes the steam.
It helps me if I remember that God is in charge of my day...not I. While He is pleased with the wise management of time and intelligent planning from day to day, He is mainly concerned with the development of inner character. He charts growth toward maturity, concerning Himself with the cultivation of priceless, attractive qualities that make us Christlike down deep within. One of His preferred methods of training us is through adjustment to irritation.
A perfect illustration? The oyster and it's pearl.
Pearls are the product of pain. For some unknown reason, the shell of the oyster gets pierced and an alien substance-a grain of sand-slips inside. On the entry of that foreign irritant, all the resources within the tiny, sensitive oyster rush to the spot and begin to release healing fluids that otherwise would have remained dormant. By and by the irritant is covered and the wound is healed -by a pearl. No other gem has so fascinating a history. It is a symbol of stress-a healed wound...a precious, tiny jewel conceived through irritation, born of adversity, nursed by adjustments. Had there been no wounding, no irritating interruptions,  there could have been no pearl. Some oysters are never wounded...and those who seek for gems toss them aside, fit only for stew.
No wonder our heavenly home has as its entrance PEARLY gates! Those who go through them need no explanation.  They are the ones who have been wounded, bruised, and have responded to the sting of irritations with the pearl of adjustment.
J.B. Phillips must have realized this as he paraphrased James 1:2-4:
When all kinds of trials crowd into our lives, my bothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they have come to test your endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men and women of mature character....