Resiliency Training 101

Dr. Robert Brooks wrote several books on raising resilient kids. He did extensive research on why people with similar backgrounds could turn out so differently. While one took adversity and overcame it, and the other let adversity ruin their whole life. What he concluded in his research has had an enormous impact on how I live my life.

He found that people who were allowed to be helpful while they were young grew up to be productive. People who had meaningful relationships with adults other than their parents grew up to have better self esteem and were generally happier in life.

At the elementary school where I teach, we have put his principles into practice. Little jobs that adults used to do daily, we have turned ownership over to students. Raising the flag every morning, wiping tables after lunch, all sorts of jobs that appear boring have become the students' pride and joy. We have our 3rd set of guys who have raised and lowered our flag from 4th grade until they graduated in 6th. They are the flag raisers, and they never forget!

Young Life and Scouting is the other way this philosophy has impacted my life. I am honored to be that person who teens want to go to Starbucks or Sonic with. I get to be one of the people they share their lives with. Sometimes I am quite shocked by what I hear, but I am fortunate that they trust me with their joys and heartbreaks.

We all need people in our lives that we can confide in. More importantly, we all need people in our lives that we are accountable to. It makes us better people when we have those around us who tell us that a 2nd dessert is not a great idea, or that maybe it is not our husband but us that is a bit unreasonable. Living life with a close friend who is honest, brutally honest, with us makes us better people. Having those people in our lives when we are young leads to having them in our lives as grown ups.

In Him,
Joyful
1-25-2010
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