Parenting Tip:

Allow your children to see you adapt to all circumstances in life. We want to shelter our children from seeing our hardships and challenging moments, but teaching adaptability helps our children find peace — a deep peace that is stronger than the stresses and trials of life. Peace counteracts the unproductive worry that causes us to lose our trust in God. Children are learning about how they should respond to their own setbacks by seeing how we are reacting. If we’re always complaining about a difficult neighbor or car trouble or a ridiculous fee the bank stuck to our account, our kids will begin to believe that life’s complications are worthy of excessive attention and emotion. Yes, we should talk and pray openly about these things, but we need to show our kids what resilient character looks like.

This flexibility and resilience, grown in difficult circumstances, allows a family to face both hardships and joys together, as they grow deeper in their faith and stronger as a family unit.