A billboard with a subheading that read “GRIT—Pass It On” started me thinking. How many circumstances these days seem to call for some sort of grit? Grit is often associated with hunkering down, with a determination to survive or prevail against all odds or to conquer every obstacle with tenacious willpower. Thinking about the idea of grit: Is there actually an approach we can turn to that provides strength, perseverance, and solutions, but that is deeper than just relying on oneself and willpower? 

To explore an answer to this, we have to let go of perceiving thought and action as derived from the human mind and human will and effort, and turn our thought to a trustworthy, consistent, spiritual perspective, because anything based on the human mind is variable and temporal. We can start by acknowledging that God, Spirit, exists. Christian Science explains that God is invariable divine Love, divine Mind, the source of all right thought and action. Knowing this, we can begin to find and experience a type of perseverance that’s spiritually grounded and impelled.   

The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, sets forth a spiritual basis for thought and action that is inherent in the true, God-created identity of each of us. It states, “It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man” (p. 206), and “Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is needed” (p. 67), thereby setting a higher, spiritual standard and expectation for our day-to-day interactions and activities.