Hard Things and Fortitude
We on occasion tell my daughter that she “can do hard things”. Also humorous at this point in toddler life, many things are hard to her. Sometimes, it’s the hard that I would think of when saying this to her, and other times, we get done with a road trip (albeit with a screaming baby and a toddler that is eager and doesn’t like to sit still) and she says, “A—— do hard things.” Hah, that’s right little miss, you can do hard things. But often I don’t think we tell ourselves this enough. We tell our toddlers this to encourage them to try, or to keep going, or to hope that they’ll have some sense of accomplishment from it when they do complete a task and next time it might seem a little less hard. While we ourselves don’t like to be uncomfortable. Intentional days take discipline, intentional lives take fortitude. We have to be okay with hard. The definition of fortitude will tell you that it gives you the ability to bear pain or adversity with courage. It doesn’t always have to...
