Stumbling on Resilience

I love jumping into new things! Something will capture my attention and I dive in, often without looking deeply into it or evaluating whether it will be useful for me. New things inspire me, new months, seasons, books etc.

An email came in from one of my favorite authors - Time Warp Wife. A ladies study was going on about "The 7 Virtues of a Proverbs 31 Woman." I immediately bought the book and joined the study! It didn't matter that I would already by 3 lessons behind, I saw it, liked it and joined in!

Once the book arrived, I knew it would be better to slow down and start at the beginning. I set the book aside, but still receive the weekly emails. .

Whatever week the study is on(!), the topic is Resilience. This is the ability to adapt to difficult or stressful situations, emerging stronger on the other side. A virtuous woman might not have the ability to solve her problems, but she has faith in the One Who does. She knows that every broken piece of her life is safe in the hands of her Savior and Lord. She knows that God specializes in miracles. He replaces the stench of death with life and gives hope where all hope is lost. Because of this unshakeable faith, she can laugh without fear of the future.

Resilience comes from friction - from stress or circumstances that may be hard. These times will come in our lives, we cannot change that. BUT, we can control our response. When we go through hard times, we can either get bitter or better. This captures the heart of resilience. The idea that we have a choice in how we respond to the trials we face is profound and empowering.

But as we choose to trust God to walk us through, we understand we need God’s strength, His guidance, His enduring love to help us through the storms. But He alone is the source that can bring us to the good on the other side as well as walk with us every step of the way.

Resilience is dependent on the choices we make. We can either lean into God, using our trials as opportunities to grow through adversity, or we can choose to let adversity embitter us. There’s something beautifully resilient, deeply faithful, and remarkably hopeful in the choice to be better, not bitter.

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