“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. What makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one.” ~M. Scott Peck
So often in life we face problems that bring feelings of overwhelm, confusion, frustration or anger. What do we choose to do when we feel these uncomfortable emotions?

In this podcast you'll learn about four stay-at-home moms just like you. Women who are smart, pretty, and gifted. Women who love their children and what to be good moms. Unfortunately, though, when life got challenging, they chose to run away, rather than face their problems head-on. This habit of running away, chosen over and over again, created lives for them that were even worse than the original problems they ran away from. 

In our modern, face-paced world there are countless escapes we can choose rather than searching for solutions, conquering our challenges and becoming the heroes of our own stories. Yet, feeling proud of who we are and the life we've lived is how we all want to feel.

Join Audrey this week as she shares the stories of these moms who chose to run away and the disastrous effects for them and their families. Consider with her how even the seemingly innocent behaviors--reading, vacationing, watching TV, social media--can easily become distractions that keep us stuck. Then look closely at the truth about problems and how they can actually become great blessings--giving our lives real meaning and deep purpose. 

Listener's Guide:
Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast. 

3:45        We are All Tempted to Run Away - Three Stories
4:26        Story One - Alice
9:08        Story Two - Felice
13:25       Story Three - Jennie Lee
17:32      Are You Running away With an Emotional distraction
21:32      Problems = Pain and Problem solving
23:51      A Helpful Way to think About Problems   
28:13     A Final Message and Challenge
29:19     Tiffany - Facing Our Problems

Quotes from this episode:
“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.” ~M. Scott Peck, M.D.
“Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life's problems. Without discipline, we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. With total discipline, we can solve all problems.” ~M. Scott Peck, M.D.
“What makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending upon their nature, evoke in us frustration or grief or sadness or loneliness or guilt or regret or anger or fear or anxiety or anguish or despair. These are uncomfortable feelings, often very uncomfortable, often as painful as any kind of physical pain, sometimes equaling the very worst kind of physical pain. Indeed, it is because of the pain that events or conflicts engender in us that we call them problems. And since life poses an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.

"Yet it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit,