Recently, I was talking with a counselor who works with young adults. One of the concerns many, including this counselor, share is the increasing lack of resiliency they are seeing in children, teens and young adults.
Resiliency is the ability to recover quickly when one encounters tough times or something bad happens. It allows the person to “rise from the ashes” and move on with their lives. People who lack resiliency are often those who seem to get stuck when they encounter an obstacle or life doesn’t go the way they had hoped. In fact, a lack of resiliency can even lead to self-destructive behaviors, including suicide.
Unfortunately, helicopter parenting or its mirror twin detached parenting don’t provide ways for young people to learn how to be resilient. Helicopter parents prevent anything from happening to their children that is even unpleasant. They don’t give their kids the chance to learn that they can indeed bounce back from unfortunate events. Detached parents barely notice their kids are encountering tough times and surely don’t provide guidance on how to bounce back from them.
The ironic thing about all of the articles on resiliency is that if we have been teaching our children about God and who He is, they will already have the tools for resiliency at their fingertips. So what are some of the tools of real godly resiliency? Here are a few of my favorites:
Continue reading Kids, Resiliency and God