How Do We Encourage our Kids to Speak Up?
This is often a question I
struggle with. I sometimes wonder if the kids feel embarrassed or just “uncool”.
I have no doubt that our kids are
constantly hearing from the Father in their own unique way and they have so
much to share but how do we get them to overcome that first hurdle and speak
up?
I recall one of our kids telling
his dad to share his vision of the Father’s love. He saw it as a wild horse,
which could not be tamed or reigned in, and this blew me away because it is
exactly how God’s love should be seen. I know that in sharing his picture,
there was a lot of people present that morning that benefitted from hearing
that. And this is something I want to encourage more of with our kids.
Cool
to Talk: We know that in the bible, Samuel was 13 when he began to hear
from God and said, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” I believe that
encouragement and letting them know there is no wrong thing to say in this
instance at times may prove helpful, but realise this is something that may
take some time to come into action. The reason I like to keep plugging at it
though is I have no doubt in my mind that the Father is storing such treasures
within each of our kids [or as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians
4, “We have these treasures in jars of clay.”] and these treasures are
meant to be shared and seen by many. He wants
our kids to be heard loud and clear and to shine brightly for Him.
Hearing
the words “Well Done”: I suppose as we mature in
our Christian walk we know that we look forward to the day we stand in front of
our Father and hear those words, “Well done my son / daughter.” Perhaps our
kids are longing to hear these words from us every week and with a little
encouragement from us, as parents, they will stand tall and share those
treasure being stored within them. It’s amazing how much a kid can take from a
pat on the back and a helping hand around their shoulders with their Fathers’
words whispering in their ears.
So here’s hoping that we start to
see more and more cool kids
within our midst who are not afraid to stay quiet. I look forward to the days
when as adults, we struggle to get a word in because our kids are taking over
with sharing the gems and nuggets straight from the Father.
