#29: Raising Our Kids to do Hard Things

Ever wonder how to teach your kids to fight fear, live bravely, and overcome hard things?  Ever been nervous that your child won’t have the life-skills and character that you hope they will?  

Today, we’re going to break it all down and know exactly how to raise kids with grit.

“Life is full of hard things. Full of them. Learning to walk is tough. Growing up is challenging. Learning to become a good spouse is no easy feat, settling into the role of mother is hard. Hard. Hard. Hard. So why wouldn't we want to prepare our kids to handle hard things well—to not balk at the pressure? Why shouldn't we seek to give them eyes that see beyond what's right in front of them, intentionally training them and equipping them with the tools to handle hard things?”

"Parenting brave requires the very same thing of us that we are trying to train in our kids, making decisions not based solely on what is right in front of us, but with the end result in mind. In this case that would be responsible and capable adults."

We aren’t helping our kids when we make things painless.  We can’t always rescue them and must let them struggle with real-life issues.  This is how they develop courage, discipline, resilience, and character.  

 Michael Godfrey shared this:

Paul says in Philippians 3:12 -14, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” 

 Paul previously says in 1 Corinthians 15:10 (NIV) “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” So through grace, we can have endurance, perseverance and grit.

So, you will often have to make those tough decisions, stand firm in your choices, and often just sit back a little so that they may bravely learn that life will through a lot of curveballs…but it’s how you handle it that matters.  It’s how you raise them that matters.   It’s how you remind them that they are loved by you and by God…no matter what.  

Resources:
https://www.mother.ly/parenting/raising-overcomers-how-to-teach-your-kids-to-do-hard-things/