Potential and your child

One of my favorite things to do as a pastor is to visit parents who have just had a baby.

The hospital room is always a place of joy and celebration.

The parents are filled with happiness and anticipation!

There is such hope and expectation for the child!

Good times.  Happy times!

If there is one word that could possibly summarize this season of child rearing - it is the word potential.  The "sky's the limit" as far as a mom and dad's hopes are for the potential of their newborn.

But then, as the child gets older and moves from the maternity ward to junior high school and then to those "wonderful" teenage years, the hopes and expectations of most parents can be eroded.

You live with your child, mom and dad, day in and day out, through the bad times as well as the good - and begin to realize that they are human beings just like the rest of us, with strengths and weaknesses.

How can you recapture the dreams that you once had for your children? 

If you don't read any farther - know this:  See your child not as he/she is, but as he/she can be.

Every child has room to improve.  Every child has potential that they have never even touched.

That's what you can do as a parent - work to help unlock your child's potential.

Help them be the people God created them to be.

God has a plan and a purpose for your child's life (and realize that it might not be your plan and purpose for their lives but God's plan and purpose - we are to train up our children in the way they should go).

Disclaimer:  You are not ultimately responsible for your child in reaching his/her potential.  They are to make the decisions that will affect their lives.  But you can help them unlock their own potential by encouraging them and moving them in the right direction.

That's a principle in our walk with God - God never looks at us as we are but as we can be - in Him.  God never gives up on us - especially when we fail.

You don't think that Jesus saw the potential in Simon Peter when he was standing by the seashore, fishing?

Most people thought of Simon as a "pebble".  God saw him as a "rock".  The "rock" that would lead his church.  Jesus said, "Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men."

So, I encourage you to encourage your child to dream.  To reach for new heights.

Here's what I know:  it is not what they are that holds your child back from reaching their potential, it is what they think they are not.

If your child sees themselves as a failure - they will act as a failure.  They will fail.  If they believe they have little to offer the world, they will contribute nothing.

No person can act in a way that is inconsistent with the way they see themselves - especially children. 

Your child will only go as far as the image they have of themselves - specifically in Christ.  Let your child know that with Christ, they can do all things.

Speak positive blessings over your child.  Speak creatively to your child.  Discipline them when they fail.  Teach them to accept responsibility.  And then - lift them up with love and encouragement.

Some "bullet point" lessons to teach your child to help them  reach their potential:

1.  Pay before you play. 

2.  Pick your friends wisely.

3.  Minimum effort will never bring forth maximum results.

4.  If you fail - get up and try again.

5.  Don't always expect the experts to be right.

     Beethoven's music teacher said about him, "As a composer he is hopeless."

     When Thomas Edison was a young boy, his teachers said he was so stupid that he could never
     learn anything.

     Walt Disney was once fired by a newspaper editor because he was thought to have "no good
     ideas."

6.  You can never go wrong doing the right thing.

7.  Make your choices wisely - they have consequences both good and bad.

8.  I trust you - but I don't trust the devil and his temptations.

Just some thoughts for a Thursday