Joyful New Year!
As we welcome 2026, may your heart be renewed with God’s joy and strength found in the ways His Word helps to build your resilience. The journey of parenting a child facing a crisis —whether the kid is at home with his parents or family caregiver or in foster care —brings both challenges and blessings, yet their steadfast faith and endurance continue to inspire awe.
At its core, resilience is not something we muster on our own—it’s something God supplies. True resilience is God-reliant, not self-reliant. It’s built into our spiritual DNA and available to each of us through His Spirit.
As this new year unfolds, keep this truth close in your heart, soul, and mind: your resilience is a divine gift, not a personal accomplishment.
What Is Resilience?
Let’s begin by exploring what resilience is not:
- Not strength-based—otherwise, we’d center on merit and miss grace. Resilience is rooted in vulnerability and surrender.
- Not static—it grows in a spectrum and develops over time in different areas of life.
- Not about winning or being right—that kind of striving leaves broken relationships behind. True resilience is choosing to love those we may not always like.
- Not immunity to pain—avoiding or denying suffering doesn’t produce resilience. Real resilience is found in humble surrender to God.
The American Psychological Association defines resilience as “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”
In Greek, the root of “resilience” relates to elasticity—to be stretched. God designed us to be both durable and adaptable, able to withstand and recover even amid life’s hardest seasons.
Resilience grows as we lean more fully into God’s presence and His people. Here’s how to cultivate it in the year ahead.
Resilience Is Cultivated in Community
Relationships are God’s training ground for endurance.
Healthy relationships strengthen resilience. They teach coping strategies, emotional regulation, and the power of genuine connection. If you haven’t already, join a local foster care support group, connect with other 4KIDS families, or attend church events for families —whether for foster, single parent, married or blended families—near you.
Community is where God’s encouragement takes root.
Resilience Is Calibrated in Adversity
God refines our hearts in the struggle, not apart from it.
Fostering or being the caregiver of a kid in crisis is sacred work—and it’s not easy. You may face challenges with a child, strained professional relationships, or the collective stress of a world filled with conflict and uncertainty.
When we depend on our own regulation, we often find ourselves depleted. But God invites us into co-regulation with Him. He never leaves us to face adversity alone. Fix your eyes on Jesus—He offers grace for every thorn and peace for every storm.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus declares seven profound “I Am” statements:
- If you are spiritually hungry, I am the bread of life.
- If you are walking in darkness, I am the light.
- If you are seeking direction, I am the door.
- If you need compassion, I am the good shepherd.
- If you crave connection, I am the true vine.
- If you long for purpose, I am the way.
- If you seek new life, I am the resurrection.
As you abide in Him, Jesus produces resilience within you through the Holy Spirit. Every hardship becomes a divine calibration—a refining work that strengthens your spiritual elasticity.
The more we surrender and grow comfortable with discomfort, the more God expands our capacity for enduring faith. And especially in the messy middle of adverse experiences.
Resilience Is Celebrated Through Legacy
What God builds in you today becomes the faith of future generations.
God, our good Father, never asks us to suffer without purpose. He walks with us through life’s challenges, bringing beauty from ashes and shaping a generational legacy of faith.
Our ultimate purpose is to glorify Him and enjoy relationship with Him through Jesus Christ—empowered each day by the Holy Spirit. As you follow His leading as a foster parent, strengthened by His joy, you’ll experience deeper closeness both now and in eternity.
Remember this truth throughout this new year: resilience is celebrated as God weaves your daily faithfulness into a legacy of hope that will outlive you in the hearts of the children you love and generations to come.
KEY TAKEAWAY
We were created to be resilient. Your resilience is cultivated in community, calibrated through adversity, and celebrated in eternity. As 2026 unfolds, turn your gaze toward the Lord and rest your heart in Him—your source of lasting resilience.
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
- In what ways do you need to turn to God in the storms of your life today?
- How are you feeling God stretch you in this season?
ACTIVITY
Help your child strengthen their resilience in your child through the Bedtime activity called One, Two, See. Find this game and more in the Everyday Moments™ collection.
KEY VERSE
The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
PRAYER
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for creating me to be reliant on you rather than on myself. And for growing my resilience through the strength of your joy, especially when I most need to endure and thrive. I surrender all to You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
