Could Your Bible Students Benefit From More Grit?

Living a Christian life in a secular world isn’t easy. It’s perhaps even more difficult when you are at the stage in life where fitting in with your peers seems all important. Many teens give up on living a Christian life long before they really have an opportunity to experience the fullness of it. Would they stick with it longer if they had more grit?

Grit is very similar to perseverance. The Apostle Paul compared the Christian life to running a race. He knew you need the same grit to run a marathon as you do to get to the finish line of a well lived Christian life. So what is grit and how can you help your young Bible students have more of it?

Angela Duckworth’s best selling book Grit is a must read for anyone working with young people. Although it is not written as a Christian book, many of the principles could easily be applied to living a Christian life. The author defines grit as a mixture of passion and perseverance. And honestly, the part on passion has the most interesting possible applications to the Christian life. Can you really carry out the Great Commission faithfully without a passion for serving and obeying God? Or for serving other people and helping them get to Heaven?

I love that the book looks at grit from different angles. It looks at how to become grittier yourself, how to work with others to help them become grittier and how to parent children who have lots of grit. The book has lots of practical information that can almost feel overwhelming because there is something to process and consider every couple of pages. Thankfully, it’s an easy read so that doesn’t add to the struggle.

I would strongly suggest buying the book and taking notes or highlighting as you read. It will make it easier to go back over points you want to consider and perhaps incorporate in how you minister to young people. Helping young people be grittier isn’t easy, but it may just give some of them the extra bit of help they need to be lifelong Christians.

Categories Book Reviews, Mentoring
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