When do you feel like you do your best parenting?
For me, it’s when I bless my kiddos instead of treating them like burdens. Lord, may this happen more often!
The other day I sat on our stairs with my 5 year old and told him I think he has a lot of good to offer others when he talks to them and that I think his smile brings joy to people. He kind of shrunk away, I mean what do you really say to something like that, anyway?
I felt led to fill him with those blessings because lately he’s been acting super shy around people until he warms up to them. Like clinging to me until I pull him off my arm kind of thing. I completely understand that this shyness may be just who he is. After all, I was like that as a kid and sometimes that is still what people see in me. But I want to make sure he knows that his smile lights up a room, that his care and compassion are admirable, and that people like hearing his voice.
At his school they give character rocks at the end of the year. The teacher thoughtfully writes a word on the rock that describes a students’ character trait that they saw that year. This past year M got his first rock. It had “Gentleness” written on it. The descriptive paper that went along with it explained that M led through being a good example to others and treated everyone with kindness. The teacher wrote that his classmates felt safe with him and liked to play with him because he was so kind and fun!
What a blessing to be seen like that by his teacher and classmates. I hope that things I say to him will bless him too. That those blessings might remind him of who he is in Christ and how Jesus sees him. I pray that, in turn, he blesses others, like Jesus did.
Becoming like Jesus is not always easy.
I’ve started telling him (and myself!) that my job as his parent is to train him how to be more like Jesus and to live peacefully with others, even when it’s hard. What a blessing to others that would be when it is done well. Part of his job, as one who has accepted Jesus into his heart, is to help me become more like Jesus too. So, I’ve told him to lovingly tell me when he sees something I’m doing that isn’t acting like Jesus and I will think about it and if Biblically correct, I will try to change my behavior. He hasn’t really brought anything to me yet, but I want him to grow up with this iron sharpening iron, loving mindset.
To receive behavior correction from a child, I would have to be calm and hear his heart. Parenting always seems to go better for me when I am calm. I think even just that peaceful attitude is a blessing to my kids.
I wonder, what if I go on a challenge to see how much I can bless my kids? What genuinely kind things can I say to them? How many times can I be calm instead of yelling? What good things can I notice about them to tell them about? What life can I speak into them because of the life Jesus has spoken into my life? Hopefully I can teach my kids more about Jesus by modeling His behavior in this way.
Lord, help me speak life into my kids! Amen.