I have been intrigued–yet pleased–to see grit making somewhat of a comeback on several different national platforms lately.

Let me give you some examples where grit, or pointing out the lack of grit–has been talked about both in secular and Christian circles. Now, I need to say this as a disclaimer since the next two blogs will be about grit. I am not indicting the culture while turning a blind eye to my own life. I struggle with “grit development” in both myself and now as a parent. I understand the temptation to take the easy path. This brief outline of my study on grit comes because I see how I need it for me and my family.

Our first example comes from the October 15th Breakpoint commentary “Bubble-wrapping Our Kids” where John Stonestreet quotes research professor at Boston College Peter Gray’s article “Declining Student Resilience: A Serious Problem for Colleges” that discusses how college students today are lacking the essential skills to deal with everyday life. Stonestreet also quotes Dan Jones, the past president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors as saying, “[Students] haven’t developed skills in how to soothe themselves, because their parents have solved all their problems and removed the obstacles. They don’t seem to have as much grit as previous generations.”

Second example, let me quote Judy Holland’s Washington Post article “Grit: The key ingredient to your kids’ success”:

“When parents and educators launched the ‘self-esteem’ movement in the 1980’s, lavishly praising kids…they expected everyone would try harder. But the opposite was true. Coddled kids became softer, slower and less likely to persevere. In other words, they didn’t learn grit.” (If you have kids—this is a great article!)

John Maxwell’s recent “Minute With Maxwell” focused on “Barriers”. Here is some of what he said:

“There is no such thing as an easy life.”
“For leaders, there are never two consecutive good days in the life of a leader.”
“People that are successful aren’t people who had a life that was barrier free, they are people who just faced their barriers. They understood they were part of the journey.”

Lastly, Kevin P. Emmert wrote in a July 28, 2015 Christianity Today article “Jesus suffers with us–and we with Him”:

“The twists and turns of life aren’t obstacles to God’s plan for our lives but necessary steps to get there. God uses our sufferings that we might share in the life of Christ. Suffering is not something we want to avoid. Rather, like Paul, we want to pass through it for it is a key means of experiencing deeper union with Christ.”

I challenge you this week to see how you are doing on the “Grit Meter”. Follow the links provided (sorry, the CT article is subscription only).

Next week, we will look specifically at how Jesus models for us that the development of grit is something to be embraced, not avoided in our lives.

More to come…
Jeremy