perseverance refusing to give up when life gets hard
Getting Started
As we approach the halfway point of this course and the semester in general, I think about when I was in college and working toward my degree. I distinctly remember experiencing some of the more “trying†times during mid-semesters in college, and I sometimes felt that I was juggling many balls at the same time. Are you currently experiencing one or more personal, academic, financial, familial, or spiritual challenges as the semester moves along? Well, God has a lot to say about how we should react to our circumstances when life gets hard!
Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate character, scholarship, and leadership in becoming a world changer through application of course content to personal life and professional social work practice.
Resources
- Bible
- Video: Run the Race: The Faith in Christ that Perseveres
Background Information
In the Bible, James shared that we need to persevere “under trials†because those who do will be blessed and will receive the “crown of life†that God has promised (James 1:12). Just as the true believer will be secure eternally in his salvation, his faith also will persevere in affliction, sickness, persecution, and the other trials of life that befall all believers. The Bible also says that if we desire to live godly lives in Christ, we will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12), but the faithful will persevere, kept by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our salvation and who will keep us “strong to the end,†persevering so we will be “blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ†(1 Corinthians 1:8).
Here are some quotations for reflection:
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.â€
Albert Einstein
“A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.â€
B. F. Skinner
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.â€
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Instructions
- Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
- Watch the video “Run the Race – The Faith in Christ that Perseveres”https://youtu.be/Nhk_5c6H-yc.
- Navigate to the threaded discussion and respond to the following discussion questions:
- What has been the biggest obstacle you have overcome in your life or career thus far?
- When you found yourself facing this obstacle, what steps did you take to begin the process of overcoming it?
- As you worked through this process, did mentors, things you read, or things you saw help you? If so, what were they?
- Where in the process of overcoming this obstacle did you reach a turning point?
- Why did you keep going when it got really tough?
- What motivated you to keep going, and what tools or coping methods did you use to keep from quitting?
