Embrace Perseverance

When I was 8 or 9, I received an award at school.  The award was the book Swiss Family Robinson and on the inside cover was a note stating I was awarded this book because of Perseverance. Perseverance is a hard gift to accept. Yet, as I am continually learning to embrace this gift, I am also recognizing how perseverance leads to patience, discipline, wisdom and love.

Perseverance allows us to focus on being our best version of ourselves in what is needed in the here and now.    We live in a world where something always needs to be done, where some attention is required, where we can find ways to improve ourselves and contribute to the communities we belong to.  Perseverance is the gift that gives each of us the opportunity to make a difference, to be lifelong learners and continually seeking to improve ourselves and our communities.  

Perseverance doesn’t look at what is wrong at the macro level, rather, perseverance looks at what can be improved or changed at the micro level and then provides the fortitude to step in and make that change.  What challenges are you called to persevere through?  Maybe it is personal growth or gaining more self-discipline. Perseverance recognizes the little movements and breakthroughs.   Maybe it is to build and strengthen relationships with individuals who hold different beliefs. Perseverance allows us to keep on engaging in civil dialogue, respecting differences while finding common ground. 

Whatever our challenges, perseverance is there to move each of us along on a minute by minute; hour by hour; day by day.  Perseverance leads to celebrations of achievements, a new program implemented at work, cleaner neighborhood streets, or earning a degree or certificate of completion. Perseverance doesn’t have the excitement or the thrill of victory; but without perseverance, we would have far fewer things to celebrate.  

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