Don't Scrooge Your Kids!

"A Christmas Carol" is one of my favorite Christmas stories. It takes Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey that enlightens him to the suffering he has caused by failing to ever consider the feelings of others. It makes me wonder what difference it would make if we could peek into the future and see the outcome of our failure to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of our kids. Are we helping them to know they are valued and loved unconditionally?

If yours is a normal home, the focus is likely on putting food on the table, completing homework, giving baths and falling into bed, exhausted after a long day at work. Would there be a difference in how you accomplished all the things that need to be done if you could actually see the long term impact of your tone, your attitude, your words? Would there be more gentleness and patience? Would you take the time to listen to their questions and try to see things from their perspective rather than forcing your perspective onto them? Would you applaud their uniqueness and bring a lighthearted joy to them rather than trying to force them to be like you... or like other kids?

This week, make their world better. Let God open your eyes to the tenderness of their hearts. They are not small adults. They are children who look to their parents to determine their worth and value at home, at school and to the God that you desire them to follow. If you are treating them with anger, impatience and indignation, they are finding themselves to be worthless. They need your best. You can try really hard and be a good parent, but if you want to be a great parent, you need help from the One who loves you... and them...more than any of us deserve!

Lord, help us to know just how important it is to shape the heart of our children with tenderness and understanding. Help us to value them as You do. Remind us that the way they feel affects the way they behave and we have the power to alter those feelings by treating them with love, dignity and respect.