I am God, your God, who teaches you how to live right and well. —Isaiah 48:17 MSG
Resilience means that no matter what our circumstances are, we are able to begin afresh and try again.
If we haven’t eaten well for breakfast, we begin anew at lunch.
If we’ve made a choice we regret, we reframe our thinking and start with a new choice the next day.
To be resilient like this, we need to cultivate acceptance, letting go of control over the past.
It happened; now we move on.
No matter what happens to us at home, in the workplace, or in a relationship, we can learn to use challenges as opportunities to grow, to increase our awareness, to discover new methods to move ahead.
Setbacks are inevitable, disappointments and failures happen, but what defines us is how we respond to setbacks.
Henry Ford said, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
Resilience relies on cultivating a flexible, open heart to God, seeing the many choices we have for moving forward. When a mistake happens, resilience jumps to, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16 NIV).
Food for Thought: When a setback happens, a resilient heart asks God for a fresh take on what’s going on, a fresh measure of grace, of love, and of power to take the next step.
