Do You Handle Hard Well?

Good morning, ladies!

Good morning, Girlfriends Inspired by God.

Do you handle hard well?

Kara Lawson is the women’s basketball coach at Duke University. In an impromptu pep talk with her team, a YouTube video that’s gone viral, she reminds her players that too often we wait in life for things to get easier.

It’s what we do. We slog through hard, waiting for the easy.

But then Coach Lawson adds it will never get easier. What happens is we learn to handle hard well.

Coach Lawson sees that as a necessary shift in our way of thinking, our way of living. She encourages her players to be people who handle hard well.

Hearing Coach Lawson, I immediately thought about our walk with God. We’re women of great faith, women who are trying to come alongside God in our work life, in our personal life, in our day-to-day interactions with the world.

But do you catch yourself waiting for easier? Do you think to yourself, if I can just get through this next call, this one week, today’s frustration, yesterday’s grief, the ongoing angst, crippling doubts?

Do your prayers start with “God, I just need…” (you fill in the blank).

Yesterday we celebrated Easter, a time to remember the great love of our dear Father in heaven, the great sacrifice of His Son, the great joy we have in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

We’ve been given so much; we have so much. It’s easy to look right past the hard in our life, to expect the hard to be behind us. Jesus conquered it all, right?

And then it’s Monday morning and reality sets in. Looming large is that difficult call, another week of unplanned to-do’s, unexpected additions to our calendar, uncertainty underscoring it all.

Coach Lawson told her players that if they’re involved in a meaningful pursuit in life, it will never be easy, that meaningful pursuits will go to people who handle hard well.

Hmmm….

We are women of faith. And whether we’re an entrepreneur or a mom taking a break to be with her kids, whether we’re changing careers or beginning a career, whether we’re on top of the world or struggling to find a little joy, a little light, a little clarity, we are all part of a meaningful pursuit that involves following God’s will, His way, and His when.

And that’s hard. It’s been hard and it will continue to be hard. There will be days we mess up, days we’re cleaning up the messes of others. There will be weeks that speed by in a blur, others that feel like they’ll never end. We’ll have seasons of overwhelm, others of underwhelm. We’ll learn what works and what doesn’t. We’ll sail through the easy and tackle the hard.

So how do we handle hard well?

Consider these ABC’s.

A: We ACCEPT. We ACKNOWLEDGE.

We can start handling hard well by accepting that “hard” is going to be part of life. That doesn’t mean we become Debby-downers, expecting the worst. It’s the acknowledgement that we live in a broken world and life happens/will happen—every minute of every day.

We accept.

B: We BELIEVE.

We can start to handle hard well by believing we are part of God’s very special call to us as women of faith. It’s that meaningful pursuit He’s given each one of us. It’s the big in our day. It’s the bigger in our life. It’s the biggest something ever—unique to us, unique to our own skills and abilities, unique to our walk with God. We believe.

We believe.

C: We CHOOSE. We CHERISH.

We can start to handle hard well by choosing to cherish our walk with God.

In her book, Mostly What God Does, Savannah Guthrie says,

“It is a choice to remain in God’s love, actively believing it, looking for it everywhere, choosing to interpret circumstances in that light. It amounts to giving God the benefit of the doubt, attributing good intentions to him. Even in times of hardship, asking yourself, ‘How is God loving me in this moment?’”

We choose. That’s how we handle hard well.

Have you ever thought about the importance of doing hard well? How can you handle hard well? What does “hard” look like for you? What meaningful pursuits has he given you? How have you been able to handle hard well?

Doing hard with you! Until next time!

Deanna Nowadnick is the author of four books, Fruit of My Spirit, Signs in Life, Bouquet of Wisdom, and “Grandma, You Found Me!”