Who doesn't admire the power of courage, grit and determination?
Who doesn't want to see those qualities when they look in the mirror?
Who doesn't want to see them take root and bloom in their family?
But we don't become courageous, we don't develop grit, our determination doesn't show itself when things are easy. It's like wanting our muscles to become stronger without the challenge of struggling to lift weights.
It takes scary times, hard times, challenging times ... times like the past several months, and the months ahead ... for our true courage and grit and
determination to be needed, to be tested and to have the opportunity to become stronger and stronger.
And these qualities we want, the qualities we want to model for our children and for them to develop, don't just happen. They often require challenging situations that give us the opportunity to work on and develop that quality.
For example, patience is a quality I want more of, and I just want to have it, but that's, unfortunately, not how it seems to work.
Instead of just feeling blessed with excessive amounts of patience, I often find myself in situations that require the patience I do not have. Those "opportunities" require me to work at practicing patience. As a result my patience is gradually getting "stronger."
(If you think "but she's so patient!" know that what you see has been a long, hard, challenging journey. If you've experience my impatience, know that I am a continuous work in progress. 
)
)Challenging times = opportunity for growth.
We may not like it, we have a choice of how we will respond to any challenge, but it is often "good for us."
We are courageous.
We have grit.
We are determined.
We are becoming stronger and more resilient.
