oomis1105 – you may be right that someone who accomplishes in the face of adversary is greater than someone who never overcame such a nisayon.
BUT, we are not allowed to put ourselves into a makom sakona in order to “show what we are made of”. THese is a gemora (i have no idea where and I just think it is a gemorah, maybe some of the men can help me out with this) that if there are two paths leading to a destination, one goes by a riverbank where there may be woman washing clothing and may not be 100% percent tznius, and the man chooses to go that route AND DOES NOT LOOK AT THE WOMEN, he is considered a rosha because he had no business putting himself into such a situation.
After 40 years in the midbar when the yidden were going to enter eretz yisroel, did hashem say – well if you can’t withstand a simple nisayon of avodah zarah which will be presented to you by the 7 Umos then what was your 40 years in Yeshiva worth? Or did he say – Kill them all out so you don’t learn from them?
We were put into this world to do ratzon hashem and only hashem (through circumstances, etc) can decide which nisayonos to give to which person. We cannot choose a nisayon because if we pass it the result may be greater kovod shamayim.