Matt Roloff

Someone who has lived what looks like a “perfect” life — someone who is tall and handsome, with a perfectly healthy body that has never been sick one day, and who came from a loving family in which the parents are still together — will probably find the going a little tougher if something bad or difficult were to happen in his life.

In our family, however, we have the attitude that we don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves. Do we ever wish some of the situations we face could be different from what they are? Yes! Do we ever pray that God will give us relief from some difficulty we’re enduring?

Absolutely!

But one thing we don’t do is allow ourselves the luxury of self-pity. Instead we allow the difficulties to make us stronger.

Matt, the dad: One of life’s simple truths is that bad things happen to good people (and the other way around, for that matter), and there have been things that have happened to me and to my family that I would rather have avoided. But I have come to a point of understanding that when life’s negatives outweigh the positives, when things are going on around me that I just don’t think are fair, that’s an opportunity for me to build up my perseverance.

There is an old saying that goes, “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” I think that is why I’m where I am today. When I was a child, I went through many surgeries and countless hours of rehabilitation and other treatment.