As I began this post, I almost typed the title as “Enhancing Your Strengths”…maybe my subconscious brain is working overtime!  Today’s chapter is about building strength where you might be lacking.  I got to thinking about it.  I realized that much of my life I have avoided hard things…not that it made a difference.  Hard things found me anyway!  But when I was able to choose, I chose the path of least resistance.  Not always out of laziness.  More like sheer cowardice.  I was so afraid I would fail, that often I wouldn’t even try.

I read an amazing book a few years ago called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.  The author is a psychology researcher who set out to study failure and ended up with research about succeeding.  She identified two mindsets, two ways of experiencing life: the fixed mindset (believing your basic qualities are set in stone) and the growth mindset (believing your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts).  Now, this book had absolutely no spiritual component, but God used it for His purpose in me; He used this book to show me that my outlook was hindering my growth.  With a fixed mindset, you see yourself as locked into your certain set of strengths.  Experiences are seen as the way to prove these fixed qualities to be true.  Successes can be written off as expected or as anomalies.  Failure can be seen as an indicator, rather than an opportunity.  The growth mindset person tends to see failure as a natural part of success.  Challenges are seen as exciting, not daunting.  Growth minded people are more apt to accurately assess their strengths and weaknesses.  “The fixed mindset makes you concerned with how you’ll be judged; the growth mindset makes you concerned about improving” (p. 13).  The author’s assertion is that mindsets are conditioned and learned.  You can change your mindset.  You can choose to see opportunity in the defeat.  You can choose to see the value in working hard to master new skills or maintain existing strengths.  You can choose to believe that we are not static or stuck, or stationary; rather we are always changing, improving, growing.

God has a growth mindset. “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?  I will even make a road in the wilderness  And rivers in the desert (Is 43:18-19).  And, as a matter of fact, I think I kind of realized something new myself today.  God has given me my strengths to use for His Kingdom.  And He works through the Holy Spirit to equip me where I am not strong so I can do more for Him.  Ok, so all that I already knew.  I bet you did too!  But what I see now is that God’s plan for me is bound to unfold regardless of what I do, therefore I must be ready and willing to play the part He has for me, even if that requires me to gain strength in new areas.  I cannot say to God, “But that’s just not in my skill set.”  If I do, the time will still come for me to work in the area of my shortcoming, and I will have chosen the more difficult road to travel, by ignoring His call to strengthen my weakness and prepare for the task.  It is my job to tune into the call and simply yield to Him.

Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect (Rom 12:2).

justAgirl…just like you