Nothing Sweeter

There is NOTHING sweeter than watching a room full of preschoolers pray to our Lord. I am so privileged to get to teach the 2-4yr old class at Journey once a month. We so often can underestimate how much they really really do get God and Jesus at these tender ages. My favorite thing to do to start class is to simply say, "Raise your hand if Jesus loves you!" All of their tiny hands shoot up into the air... their faces light up! I pray for all of them that they will grow up to really, really believe that. Jesus REALLY does love them. To think of what a positive impact them knowing that, starting at such a young age, will have on their lives is just astounding. What a huge responsibility we all have to the young ones around us! Teaching God's love is something we must do daily. We must live it, show it, be it! From how we talk to others, to how we treat them, to how we even talk ABOUT others when they're not around... it all impacts our children. Unfortunately our children will "likely" become like us... not like we tell them to become. Anyone else feel pressure there? lol Well, I guess we should feel it. How often do you think back to your days as a child, growing up and trying to figure out how this big, mean world works, and the things adults did that negatively impacted you? I have really tried to go through my entire childhood and pinpoint the things that happened that made me who I am. Good and bad. What created the positives about me? What created the negatives? I think that's a good exercise for all parents to do. I've tried to be very purposeful in NOT doing the things that I know created negatives for me to my children. From simple things like not talking over them or trying to immediately calm the situation when one of them is obviously becoming frustrated to big things like not fighting with Clayton in front of them (or not fighting with him period lol) to not yelling, spanking, or saying phrases that I hated my entire life like: "You have to clean your plate", "Don't make me come over there!", or "Quite crying before I give you something to cry about!" Oh my.... we all too often do not think enough about the words we speak aloud. Thoughts alone can be quite detrimental to our own selves... but the power of our words is something not to be ignored. Especially to a child that is so mold-able. What do you want your children to think about themselves? Say THOSE things to them! What do you want them to become? Smart? Hard working? Successful in life? Speak those words over them. My stepmother was the QUEEN of positive speaking with us kids. I can still remember words she spoke to me and about me. Things like, "you have so much wisdom to be so young... never let anyone tell you otherwise!" and "You really have a gift with words, don't stop speaking truth to people." Now, maybe she said a little too much because sometimes my "gift" with words overrides my gift of censorship... but you get the idea. We all need to be totally purposeful with the parenting of our own children and the raising of the children around us! Children are such a total gift. God never has to hand down a child if he doesn't see it for his glory.... yet it really becomes so easy to take them for granted. My goal is to focus each day on how to NOT take for granted each of my children. To look each one of them over thoroughly and find their strengths and focus totally on those, making the weaknesses they have easier to deal with. Hopefully my actions as a mother will show God how thankful I am for the three miracles he handed down to me.