Through Pain We Learn
When life is easy and comfortable, we tend to take it for granted. But in this ever-changing world, one must change with it to be able to cope and survive especially during rough times. That’s how the Puritans lived their lives during the colonial period, and they were able to sustain themselves through those hardships by having faith in God. In Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson, that was published in 1682, we can see how Mary, the Puritan wife of the minister of Lancaster— the mother of three children, had everything taken away from her one day when the Indians attacked and killed everyone she knew. She spent eleven weeks in captivity, during which she had to adjust to …show more content…
She states, “Still the Lord upheld me with His Gracious and merciful spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning” (272). It shows that her faith in God’s providence kept her alive despite what was going on around her. She vividly describes the dreadful scenes of how Christians were lying in their blood, chopped into the heads, and stripped naked with their guts out and yet she writes, “Yet the Lord by His almighty power preserved a number of us from death, for there were twenty-four of us taken alive and carried captive” (270). We can see that despite the human losses and the burning of their houses, Mary refocuses her attention to the positive interference of God and feels a sense of relief and satisfaction even though she was alone and in agony. It shows how strong Puritan’s faith was. She also writes, “He wounded me with one hand, so he healed me with the other” (273). She knew that the pain she’s going though can only be alleviated by God. Puritans believed that God plays a role in their lives and make good things happen for them and we can see that when she says, “I cannot but take notice of the wonderful mercy of God to me in those afflictions, in sending me a bible” (275). She believes God gives her signs to keep her faith strong. And later she writes, “And I hope I can say in some measure as David did, it is good for me that I have been afflicted”. Mary compares her situation to the situation of a Biblical figure. Then, she quotes the bible that helped her get through difficult times, i.e., when she was crossing over the river. She quotes, “When thou passeth through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee (Isaiah 43.2)” (277). And when she bemoaned her doleful condition and how her freedom was taken away from her, she found comfort in Scripture. She quotes, “The Lord hath