"God gives the hardest battles to the strongest soldiers."

False.

How in the world can this be true? God isn't up in Heaven, like the captain of a sports team, looking at the group of people and selecting the mentally strongest, thinking, "You- I think it's time I bring your parents home to be by my side. Because you can handle it. And you- you've really grown closer to me and become a better person, so you know what I'm going to do? I think I'll give you some cancer. And, oh, can't forget you- you're going to get in a really bad wreck later, and you won't be able to walk for a few months. But it's okay, you won't mind, you can handle it."

What? 

By saying God gives the hardest battles to the strongest people, we're (unintentionally) making our God sound like a horrible, cruel, punishing one. We're saying that he judges us by where we are now, rather than where we're going to end up, and we're saying that the closer to Him we've remained, the harder our lives are going to be. And on the flip side? We're saying the weakest people, maybe the people who have never experienced His grace, won't ever have to fight any hard battles. They'll have it easy.

What?!

So, I beg to differ. I've seen this quote posted online, I've heard it being said in a number of different contexts, and honestly, this needs to be heard. God puts us through rough spots in our lives to strengthen us. And, one more thing: if you've lost a loved one, God did not take them away from you just to make you stronger. If you've lost a loved one, it was their time. They were blessed enough to have already done what God needed them to do, and they got to go home early. Our God is a kind one. He loves us, and the last thing He would do is use such extreme measures to punish us, or even better us. True, you learn from overcoming things you thought you'd never overcome. You know that, God knows that. But this quote- it puts a barrier between you and God, and you might not even be aware of it. You're going to have trouble putting your full faith and trust in a God that gives the best of his disciples the hardest lives, and lets the people who are the farthest away from him off the hook.

We've all gone through awfully hard times in our lives. We've gone through them before. We'll go through them again. But telling ourselves this- almost to raise ourselves up, when the first thing we should be doing is staying humble- is just an excuse. "Well, this situation is really hard. Really terrible. But that makes sense; God gives the hardest battles to the strongest soldiers, and I'm dang strong. I can take this." This is so wrong. I can tell you straight up that if something bad happens to you or someone you love, God's intentions were not to compliment you, telling you how strong you are and showing you what you can handle. He has a plan for everyone, of course. But He has much bigger, better, deeper reasons for what He does than that. We have to give Him credit for that.

So, I'm going to go out on a limb here, and change up the way that quote is worded. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that God doesn't give the hardest battles to the strongest soldiers, He gives us all battles, in the grand scheme of things, some bigger than others, but individually, each battle is equally huge in our minds, and we all have to grow in Christ and strengthen ourselves through Him in order to win the battle. There's no "strongest/weakest" "hardest/easiest" to it. We're all going through something. We have all fought something bigger than us, and we have all come out stronger because of it.

We're all strong.

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you." -2 Corinthians 4:7-12, and 16-18

"From God and not from us."  God has given us these hard times, to teach us something. We haven't brought these times upon ourselves, our "strength" is not accountable for what's being placed in our life.