5 Minute Fridays:Grit

(Today I have joined up with the Gypsy Mama for 5 Minute Friday...check it out...a whole lot of writers, getting together to sew words together around one word...and in the process creating community).

Grit...

Where does one start with a word like "grit"...I confess, I started with the dictionary (probably a small "cheat" considering I'm timing myself and did not include my "time" in the dictionary. Probably also the former English teacher in me coming out)...

Nevertheless...there were two definitions, both accurate, and telling...

1. A hard shaped granule
2. firmness of mind or spirit, unyielding courage in the face of hardship...(synonyms being "fortitude" and "spunk"

What strikes me as interesting is that in one capacity, grit (the hard shaped granules) could be irritating, bothersome and frustrating...

If I were on a long journey, so to speak and there were "grit" in my shoes...it would drive me batty.

But isn't it the "grit" in our lives...the little, hard things...that inevitable form strength. Isn't it the daily frustrations, the rebellious children, the difficult neighbor, the challenging co-worker, the needing to make ends meet when the finances are difficult...it is the grit in our lives that makes us stronger...

Grit of one sort develops the grit of another...

I want to be a woman, a mother a wife, a daughter of Christ who is firm in mind and unyielding in the face of difficulty...I want to be "gritty", but it takes facing "grit" to get there...

I only become that woman as I learn to react more firmly, more responsibly, more Godly in the face of challenges in my life...

As we learn to respond to the small, hard pebbles, we become larger, stronger, more able...


STOP...