Building Resilience in Your Family: Finding Strength Through Life's Storms

Excerpted from A Message By Jon Alsdorf on October 12, 2025
In a world that seems increasingly broken, families need more than just survival strategies—they need resilience. While we can't control the storms that come our way, we can learn to weather them with strength, faith, and hope. Building a resilient family isn't about avoiding hardship; it's about developing the spiritual and emotional tools to thrive despite it.
What Does the Bible Say About Suffering and Resilience?
The apostle Paul offers a surprising perspective on building resilience in Romans 5:3-5: "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." This isn't about seeking out trouble, but rather understanding that the difficulties we face can become the very foundation of our strength.
James echoes this truth: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness" (James 1:2-3). The key word here is "steadfastness"—the ability to remain firm and unwavering when life gets difficult.
Why Is Resilience So Important for Families?
Resilience isn't just about surviving hard times; it's about developing the character that reflects Christ. When we learn to endure with faith, we become "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:4). This doesn't mean we become flawless, but rather whole and mature in our faith.
Following Jesus doesn't make life easy, but it does give us an unfair advantage. We have the Holy Spirit for wisdom and strength, God's Word for guidance and promises, and a community of believers for support. These resources help us develop the inner strength needed to face whatever comes our way.
How Can You Model Resilience for Your Family?
Show Them What Faith Looks Like in Hard Times
Your children and grandchildren desperately need to see what it looks like to trust Jesus in the midst of difficulty. They need to witness you persevering in your marriage when it's hard, dealing with health issues while maintaining faith, and handling loss from a Christian perspective.
Paul encouraged Timothy to "share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 2:3). This military imagery reminds us that resilience requires discipline and commitment. When you model this kind of steadfastness, you're showing the next generation how to live as faithful soldiers in God's kingdom.
Don't Hide All Your Struggles
While you shouldn't burden children with every difficulty, they need to see that problems are normal and that faithful people work through them together. When you hide all your struggles, you rob them of the opportunity to learn problem-solving skills and see faith in action.
What Family Habits Build Resilience?
Pray Together Daily
Make prayer a non-negotiable family habit. Don't wait for crises to turn to God together. Pray at meals, at bedtime, and throughout your daily routine. When prayer is already a habit, turning to God during difficult times won't feel strange or desperate—it will feel natural.
Problem-Solve as a Team
Include your family in age-appropriate problem-solving. Hold family meetings to discuss challenges and work through solutions together. This teaches children that problems are normal and that families can work together to overcome them.
Practice Gratitude Regularly
Don't save thanksgiving for holidays. Make appreciation a daily habit. Ask family members what they're grateful for, what went well that day, or what blessings they noticed. When we train ourselves to look for God's goodness, the irritating things in life become smaller and our resilience grows stronger.
Why Is Community Essential for Building Resilience?
The Power of Small Groups
Being part of a small group or close Christian community provides stability when life gets rocky. It's the difference between sitting in a canoe versus a yacht when storms hit. In a canoe, any disturbance can capsize you. In a larger, more stable vessel, you can weather much bigger storms.
Learning from the Early Church
The early Christians in Acts 2 "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." They met together daily, shared meals, and supported one another. This wasn't happening during peaceful times—they faced persecution and hardship. Yet their community gave them the resilience to not just survive but thrive.
How Do Family Stories Build Resilience?
Remember God's Faithfulness
One of the most powerful ways to build resilience is to regularly retell the stories of God's faithfulness in your family's life. These aren't just nice memories—they're evidence of God's character and His commitment to you.
David wrote, "I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds" (Psalm 9:1). The word "recount" means to tell the story again and again. These stories become part of your family's identity and a source of strength during future challenges.
Create a Legacy of Faith
When you regularly share stories of answered prayers, opened doors, and God's provision, you're building a legacy of faith. These stories remind your family that the same God who was faithful yesterday will be faithful tomorrow.
What If You're Going Through a Difficult Season Right Now?
If you're currently facing challenges, remember that God sees the end from the beginning. While you can only look backward and see His faithfulness in the past, He can see ahead and knows exactly where He's taking you. His track record in your life proves His love and commitment to walking you through difficult circumstances.
Don't give up. Ask God for the resilience you need, rely on the people around you who love you, and keep moving forward. The harvest of character, hope, and joy that comes from perseverance is worth the struggle.
Life Application
This week, choose one specific way to begin building resilience in your family. Whether it's starting a daily prayer habit, sharing a story of God's faithfulness, or joining a small group, take one concrete step toward creating a more resilient family culture.
Ask yourself these questions:

• What difficult situation in my past actually made me stronger? How can I share that story with my family?
• Am I modeling resilience for those who look up to me, or am I constantly trying to escape from every hardship?
• What family habits could we start this week that would help us turn toward God together during both good times and bad?
• How connected am I to a community of believers who could support my family during difficult seasons?

Remember, resilience isn't built overnight, but every small step toward trusting God in difficulty creates a foundation that will serve your family for generations to come.

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