The characteristics of resilience and adaptability will serve us well in this season of much uncertainty.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines resilience as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change” and adaptability as the ability to adapt which is “to make fit (as for a new use) often by modification“.
Simply put, resilience and adaptability are abilities that enable one to roll with the punches life throws at us. To take what life has given us and making it work for us. Remember the saying about making lemonade with the lemons life give you? Yeah. That.
Don’t Like Change
No one likes change, especially when that change that is forced upon us unexpectedly. We don’t like constant change either. And yet, change is only to be expected in life. Nothing stays the same forever.
How we respond to the challenges life throws at us when change occurs reveals our mettle or our lack thereof. And this Covid-19 situation is rather revealing in that way.
Thriving or Limping Along?
In casual conversations and catch-ups over Zoom meetings or WhatsApp messages, I have observed that those who are resilient and adaptable do better than those who are not.
They aren’t just surviving but are thriving while the rest limp along.
Being resilient and adaptable are great life skills. But how can we develop this ability to be resilient and adaptable in ourselves and in our children?
Renewing Our Minds
Could it be our mindset? After all, if we see ourselves as the victim, then this victim mindset will lead us always to feel bullied, useless and hopeless. But if we see ourselves as problem-solvers, as someone who has initiative then we would deal accordingly to the challenges thrown at us.
As believers in Jesus Christ, as children of the living God, we should not have the mindset that we are victims. We may have grown up as victims, but now, we are not.
Instead, the Bible says that we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), ie not a loser but a victor!
But it is also a mind that needs constant renewing (Romans 12:2). Otherwise, it lapses into old patterns, old thought processes.
Faith Not Fear
There is a new normal awaiting all of us when the circuit breaker lifts. How will we respond to it? In fear? Or in faith?
Let me encourage us to respond always in faith even if our first response is fear. Because the God who created the heavens and earth (Nehemiah 9:6), who knows the name of every star (Isaiah 40:26) also knows our name and loves us.
We can be resilient and adaptable because we have a God who knows all things and is not surprised by all the changes and restrictions being implemented all over the world. Be it the first wave of infection or the second or third, He knows. And He also cares for us.
Living It Out
But what does it mean in day-to-day living? In the midst of all that we have to plan and do? How can we build resilience and adaptability?
For us adults, it means we must spend some time in His word, even if it is a short 5-minute session. This is when short and simple devotionals like Our Daily Bread or She Reads Truth are helpful. Otherwise, check your Bible apps for reading plans. Or just open up your Bible and read a chapter a day.
Don’t complicate matters.
What we fill our minds with is what will come out of us. Be careful! Instead of saturating our minds with Instagram and Facebook posts let us intentionally saturate our minds with the Word of God. Then spend a few moments in prayer. And lean in to listen to what He is directing us to do.
When we make this a daily practice, hearing from God will be less of a challenge. Knowing His will will be clearer. Let us not wait for a crisis to hit us and then scramble to hear from God.
For our children, it is the same. They have to spend time with God so that they will know God themselves. Remember, God has no grandchildren. And there is no such thing as borrowed faith.
When they are very young, we will have to sit with them and “make” them do it. But pray that they will take it up for themselves as they grow up.
That is why it is important that we model it for them. If they do not see us spend time with God, or talk about God, then God has been compartmentalised away for Church life only.
If your children are matured enough, you can talk things through with them. Reminding them of WHOSE they are.
Meanwhile, we press on in our next steps. I shared this beautiful post on my Facebook page. Which is very similar to the old poem Elizabeth Elliot popularised, Do the Next Thing.
This advice reminds us to just move forward step-by-step applies to everything in life. And in this case, renewing our minds step-by-step with the Word of God will grow our faith in Him and with it, our resilience and adaptability to whatever life throws at us.
Here’s to building resilience and adaptability in our lives!
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Devotions with the Children – Then and Now
2 Comments on Resilience and Adaptability
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Thank you Serene ❤️ love this “just move forward step-by-step applies to everything in life. And in this case, renewing our minds step-by-step with the Word of God will grow our faith in Him and with it, our resilience and adaptability to whatever life throws at us.”
You’re welcomed!