Parents, we can nag and remind our kids to death. Because we desire and sometimes panic about our child’s spiritual and emotional growth, we may have the tendency to talk too much in hopes our words will change them. Our kids in turn will get irritated and eventually turn us off. So why not stimulate them to growth? Stimulate ideas for godliness and greatness to come from within them-with your skilled guidance, of course!
This week’s idea: Give your kids a dry erase marker. Encourage them to come up with a personal goal for the week. Then they get to write their goal across the bathroom or bedroom mirror. What fun to have permission to write on the mirror! (It comes right off, by the way). This means they get to see it every day, and be stimulated by their own words.
Helpful Hints to begin Stimulating Change
- Have a casual conversation about your first goal making and how it has helped you.
- In His youth, Jesus grew in all four areas of life: stature, knowledge, favor with God and man. Your child can choose any of these areas to make a goal: physical academic, spiritual, social.
- Encourage your child to make the goal small and reachable for one week at a time.
- Resist the desire to give them the goal! Let them take full ownership of it. They may need only vague ideas from you to get started.
- Celebrate when the goal is reached, then make a new one!
Here are some goals and personal successes my boys have enjoyed since we began stimulating their growth: work out 3 times a week, become the best soccer player I can be, stop biting my nails, don’t watch television and computer for a week. These have been great points of growth for our kids, and I am so thrilled to see some maturity happening from within.
Can I tell you how huge it is that our 12 year old who has been biting his nails his entire life (I had not cut his nails since he was two!), is now growing his nails? We have cut them a glorious 3 times since he decided to accomplish this on his own!!
I look forward to hearing about the great strides your beloved children will make as they learn to take responsibility for their own growth and enrichment! Please let me know how it is going…