Survivors are a club all to themselves.
They usually spot one another or naturally gravitate to each other. Growing up in a family that doesn’t rescue you has it’s benefits. It’s called the school of hard knocks a lot of times.
What’s so cruel about not being insulated? Being tough instead of
being ‘princessed’ to death? Failing or figuring it out can be great motivators. It could be called raising leaders.
Most leaders I know had to overcome some tough obstacles to thrive. They thrived because they just had to survive.
Sometimes easy peasy can get real greasy. It takes resistance to build strength. Difficulty is necessary to produce a person that perseveres. Before you know it, you’re just all slumbering and sleazy and not accomplishing a thing. All because “easy” was your nemesis.
You need a problem to help you grow and develop as a problem solver.
A dilemma to challenge your faith. Sounds inviting huh? Nobody wants to sign up for problems. Dilemmas. Anything that’s hard and stretches us we desperately want to avoid. We don’t like discomfort. I mean who does? Who signs up for trials? Tests? Discipline? Not a lot of takers. We want easy and lazy. We prefer for others to do it for us in our customary co-dependent fallen world.
Problems and difficulties are part of our growth process. Put your big girl panties on slap some lipstick on that problem and deal with it. I can see my girlfriend Dafney saying it right now. The most effective, capable leaders I know have went through some deep valleys and no-one could help them but God.
But even if someone could’ve helped them, they didn’t get much help if any at all. People just observed from afar. In fact, God kept people away so that you would and could develop alone. Alone in the dark, in the frustration of the pain. Sometimes, survivors are like a machine and they are built Ford tough. They have Grit.
There’s a big difference between physical toughness and mental toughness. Some of the toughest people I know are harmless as a dove, but they’ve been to hell and back and definitely can hold their ground. They know how to win mentally.
Raising survivors is about teaching them to thrive in every situation. It’s about winning instead of whining. Being tender but tough also. It’s about seeing what you’ve got and not what you need. It’s about their willingness to educate themselves and develop another skill. Whatever skill it takes to succeed. Their confidence comes from knowing they have no other options. They lay the whole mess on the back of God and strap those bootstraps up and move on.
I believe you want to win in life. I do. You do. Everyone does. But what if the very way we win is to walk the path of pain. The path of loss. The path of failing forward in life?
What if you knew the darkest season and struggle you are in right now would give you something invaluable?
This is where the rubber meets the road. Problem solvers are born right here. People with grit and drive. People that are left alone to figure it out have too.
This develops strategizers. They are forward thinkers. They fail, but they fail forward. When people are survivors they’ve always had to have a strategy.
They see where a problem is and start to untangle that wadded mess like a string of Christmas lights. They aren’t sure where to start but rest assured they don’t quit.
What if through this pain or struggle you were gaining a stamina for God to catapult you to the next level of whatever it is that He has for you.
You need the resistance. You need the war, so you can learn to gain the victory. You will never go to the next level until you master the current level you are experiencing the struggle. Pass the test. I believe you can and God knows you can.
I would love to get your feedback.