I heard the following story from the baal hamaaseh (from the person to whom the story occurred). He is today a respected mechanech:
As a fourteen-year-old teenager, he learned in a yeshiva where a very strict mashgiach, wanting to maintain discipline in the school, would punish the students for every minor infraction.
Once, for a minor matter, the mashgiach told the bachur that he was expelled for a few hours that day. In the hallway of the yeshiva (as he was getting ready to leave the building), this young bachur met a bachur three years older than him. The older bachur convinced the young bachur to go along with him, but it was to a place where yeshiva bachurim didn’t belong. "I want to teach the mashgiach a lesson," he explained to the younger bachur. "He must know the danger of throwing a bachur out of the yeshiva, so stop doing so."
The younger bachur had yiras Shamayim and didn't want to go to that place. But he felt he couldn’t argue with "an older bachur." The older bachur didn't have too much yiras Shamayim and, unfortunately, wanted to take him somewhere inappropriate.
Before they got to that place, they passed through a beautiful garden, and the gardener who worked there stopped them and spoke to them. This gardener told them that he was a Holocaust survivor, and after the war, he dropped religion, r'l. He showed them what he does in the garden. He pointed and said, "I trim those shrubs, and I fertilize those trees. But do you see this field over there? I don't touch that field. Recently, I planted seeds there; the seeds are decomposing now, and soon they will blossom and grow. The crop is very delicate now. If I touch it, it will be ruined, and nothing will come from it."
And then the gardener gave them a lesson in mussar that the younger bachur never forgot. He said, "You are young bachurim, you learn in yeshiva, and sometimes you do something wrong. You are like the seeds that are decomposing. But you must be cautious at this time so that you don't ruin yourselves. You are at a very delicate age, and a wrong move can ruin your future forever. Listen to my counsel and go back to yeshiva." The bachur returned to the yeshiva, and today he is a talmid chacham.
Tests are a dangerous and delicate time. We can grow immensely from them, but if we fail the test, we can fall drastically. Therefore, we must be very cautious.
So, be happy with your tests, embrace them, and pass them. You will grow immensely from these situations.
The Torah's Perspective on Struggle
The Torah tells us (32:25), עלות עד עמו איש ויאבק השחר, "A man battled with Yaakov until the morning." Who was this person? Rashi tells us that this man was עשו של שרו, Eisav's malach, the yetzer hara. It wasn’t a person but the yetzer hara battling with Yaakov Avinu. The wrestle is called ויאבק, which can also mean dust (see Rashi), and it alludes to the dust they raised by their wrestling. ויאבק is gematriya הכבוד כסא, Hashem's holy throne, as the Baal HaTurim points out, because the dust of this battle rose up to Hashem's throne. Yaakov's struggle with the yetzer hara went up to Hashem's throne, because Hashem has immense pleasure from these encounters.
A king's crown is made from gold, diamonds, and precious gems, but there are also areas on the crown where there is nothing at all. Those empty spaces add beauty to the crown. The crown wouldn’t be so beautiful if the gems covered each inch of it without any separations. The empty spots hint at the challenges we undergo. They seem empty, insignificant, and undesirable, but these tests give our avodas Hashem its beauty and splendor.
