Perseverance – to not quit. This is the character trait for the month of January at our school and sort of a hallmark virtue of Providence Preparatory Academy. But as I observe our modern world, I’m convinced that perseverance has become something of an anomaly, an exception to the rule in a culture increasingly addicted to comfort.
We live like kings in 21st century America. Every adult has a smartphone and access to some streaming device which allows access to entertainment whenever desired and for however long desired. We find ourselves searching for and achieving comfort through an unwavering commitment to relaxation and entertainment. I have a theory that this ease of access to entertainment has become more of a stumbling block to productivity and growth than it helps us as a pastime. As a result, our children don’t do the worthwhile anymore because by our example they are unwilling to do the hard anymore. We have an insatiable desire for ease and comfort and distraction and now, so do they.
As a result of this brave new world, our children are growing up in an environment where perseverance is the exception to the rule. The rule being that we are drawn to the path of least resistance. Comfort eventually leads to discontentment and thereby the desire for more comfort. As this process is unchecked, overtime it will train your mind to avoid challenge or anything that would threaten that comfort, serving as a kind of heavy haze or fog that slowly sets in and gradually infects the mind and heart of the individual snagged on its lure or under its spell.
This pattern is nothing new in literature or human experience. Consider the scene in Pilgrim’s Progress when Christian stumbles into the By-Path Meadow, or Percy Jackson walking into the Lotus Casino, or when Odysseus and his men eat the lotus flower on the Island of the Lotus Eaters. In all of these scenes, the protagonist is temporarily delayed in his great and worthy journey as he trades one of his most valuable commodities, his time, for the indulgence of ease and comfort. These stories warn us of what we now live every day.
What if we could be trained to value perseverance more than comfort? What if we began to make choices based on what is right and good rather than merely what we want or how we feel? What if comfort could be enjoyed in its proper place and with gratitude, but appropriately put away when it was time to work and worship?
As believers, we need to choose truth over feel-good platitudes, what is right over what we want at the time, and growth over complacency or comfort. Romans 12:2 calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, not conformed to the patterns of this world. This transformation requires the grace of God and perseverance, the willingness to do what is difficult in pursuit of what is good.
As believers, we have more reason to persevere than the non-believer. We have hope and faith in a faithfully good and powerful God who is working all things together for good, even the trials. The sovereignty of God gives us the ability to persevere. He is working in us. When we are knocked down, we get up stronger. This worldview changes everything about how we approach difficulty and hardship.
Imagine if our children understood this truth and embodied it. Imagine a generation that viewed challenges not as obstacles to avoid but as opportunities for growth, knowing that God is refining them through every trial. This is the vision that drives our focus on perseverance at Providence Preparatory Academy.
But perseverance without direction is merely stubbornness. It’s important to identify what we are persevering to and what we are persevering for. Direction and result matter. What is the joy set before us? Just as Christ endured the cross for the joy set before Him, we must have a clear vision of what we’re working toward. Our perseverance must be purposeful, aimed at something worthy of the struggle.
This brings us to a crucial truth about contentment. Wanting for nothing does not come from the possessions you have, but from the person you are. As parents, we naturally want to give our children the world. Ironically, by providing them an abundance of possessions, we give them exactly what the world desires, vanity. What if we gave them something better? What if we could instill perseverance, contentment, and the strength to choose what is right over what is easy?
The path forward is not about depriving our children of good things or making life unnecessarily difficult. It’s about helping them understand that the most valuable things in life, the things most worth having, often require perseverance to obtain. It’s about modeling for them what it looks like to choose growth over comfort, to pursue what is right even when it’s hard, to find our strength and hope in God’s sovereignty and His truth rather than in ourselves or the endless distractions of this world.
In a world addicted to comfort, perseverance is revolutionary. It’s counter-cultural. It’s exactly what our children need. And it begins with us, choosing today to value the hard work of character formation over the easy path of endless entertainment and comfort. The question is not whether our children will face difficulties, but whether they will be prepared to persevere when they do.
