Originally posted on Jun. 23, 2015
"Growth and maturity are not easy, and they cannot be made easy or bypassed. The challenge of growth lies in the handling the pain of stress. If you reflect about it for just a moment, you'll realize that a child's life entails innumerable daily encounters with discomfort, strain, change, conflict, and adaptation. The stresses range from overwhelming to mundane: taking criticism, putting up with an exasperating sibling or parent, suffering physical injury, breaking a toy, adjusting to the loss of a loved one or the death of a pet, being barred from a team because of being too short or too slight, having to get up early, losing a job or not getting one, having no money, being discriminated against because of race or ethnic background, enduring a physical handicap, waking up to a rainy Saturday, etc., ad infinitum.
"All of these situations contain the seed of possible problems because all of them confront the child with the choice of whether he will cope or quit. Initially, coping may mean nothing more than learning to live with stress while realizing that not all problems are amenable to ready-made solutions...
"Making the best of a bad moment, finding a way out, creating good out of bad -- this is the next step in coping that goes beyond stoic toleration. To transcend disappointment and difficulty, a child needs imagination and creativity. Creativity, especially. A creative child feels no less upset or uncomfortable in the presence of stress than does a weak child, but he reacts differently to the same negative stimulus. Instead of fleeing or avoiding it, he comes to grips with it."
From For the Love of Children, by Edward F. Ford and Steven Englund
This idea is applicable not only to children young of age but also to adults who in the eyes of God are children. Take this information and apply it to yourself, and focus the work with your inner child. This is key, as it goes with what I always say: It's not so much what happens outside of us, but how we react to what happens to us.
My love and joy
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