I exhaled as if to indicate that I had no words to describe my emotional state. My wife and I had just sat down at the restaurant and found ourselves in a quiet moment only hours after receiving the news that our three-year-old Benny had No Evidence of Disease. This was the first pivot point during his journey with brain cancer and the completion of his proton radiation treatments.

Amanda looked at me and said, “That was hard.”

We both started to cry. Almost every moment of the previous five months had been exhausting physically and emotionally, and there was no point where we had the luxury of calling a time-out. She was right. That was hard.

The power of her past-tense statement caused a wave of feelings and reflections to wash over us both. We recalled some of the most difficult doctor conversations, laughed about the funny things our kids said or did during tough moments, and reflected on the various practices and people who helped to pull us through.

During our trials, when everything was still in the present tense, we powered through and persevered in prayer. Through that period of joy and pain, we would often say, “This is hard,” and then keep pushing forward to take the next step. But we always had the hope and promise that our past-tense moment was coming.

The same can be said for any of the other trials I’ve faced in business or beyond. The storm is raging all around us, and we must determine the next best move. When the obstacles and disappointments are present tense, we pray for strength and remain hopeful in the time to come when we can exclaim, “That was hard.”

For those of you currently facing major trials, I encourage you to remain hopeful for your own past-tense future.