Cultivating Grit - Characteristics

TRANSCRIPT: Good morning, Five Minute Families. This week we are finishing our series “Cultivating Grit.” We have discussed necessary elements of grit with how to ‘welcome no’ instead of fighting against it and with how to ‘work through disappointments’ by reframing those experiences. Those two elements alone will help your children and yourselves to deal with life and keep moving forward in a positive way. Yet, just like all processes, there is more to grit than these two parts. Grit is the culmination of passion, resilience, hope, perseverance, and more. The final portion of APA Dictionary of Psychology definition of grit that we started last week ends with: “Recent studies suggest this trait may be more relevant than intelligence in determining a person’s high achievement. For example, grit may be particularly important to accomplishing an especially complex task when there is a strong temptation to give up altogether.” Psychology Today uses the analogy of a marathon versus a sprint to describe grit. Christ-followers can recognize the characteristic of grit illustrated in 1 Corinthians 9:24-26 -- “Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air.” In all of life, setting goals is important, both short term and long term ones. As we discussed in our last two weeks, we will encounter setbacks in reaching our goals just as Jesus told us we would in John 16:33. A saying we used to have hanging on our homeschool classroom wall said, “You never fail until you stop trying.” So, we must make sure that we prepare our children and ourselves for success by cultivating grit in these five ways 1.    Explore the purpose of the activity you are involved in. Ask yourself, “why am I doing this?” And, when appropriate, b