Let me tell you about a boy named Tom. At an early age, he developed a hearing problem, which caused him a lot of trouble at school. He was easily distracted. He frustrated his teachers by disrupting the class and steering the conversation in random directions. His teachers considered him “stupid, restless, and a slow learner who asked too many questions.” Tom’s public education was a complete failure.
If that were your child, how would you react? Would you lose heart over his or her shortcomings? Or would you catch a vision for who he or she could become?
Tom’s mother chose the latter. She not only educated Tom herself, but she also channeled his questions into a pathway for discovery.
The result? By the time he died at age 84, Tom had hundreds of inventions to his name, including the electric light bulb. That’s right, the “stupid and slow learner” was none other than Thomas Edison, one of the greatest inventors in history.
Good parenting is about vision. Everyone else looked at David and saw a shepherd boy – God saw a king. Peter denied the Lord three times, but Jesus still called him a “rock” and used him to build His church.
Every child struggles with something. Effective parenting looks beyond where a child is right now and catches a vision for who he or she can become.
As a Christian parent, you want to raise your children to be resilient and confident with a solid identity in Christ. But between social media, the challenges at school, and social pressures – there’s a lot that whittles away their confidence.
On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Nurturing Your Child’s Purpose and Passion,” our guest Cyndie Claypool de Neve offers tools that will help you build up your children in healthy, positive ways so they can become strong, functional adults.
Listen to our full conversation on your local radio station, online, on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or on our free phone app.
Cyndie Claypool de Neve’s book God-Confident Kids: Helping Your Child Find True Purpose, Passion, and Peace is available for a gift of any amount. For more information, visit our website.
While you’re online, take our free parenting assessment. It will quickly give you an overview of how your family is doing in several key areas and offer some suggestions on how you can improve the relationships in your home.
Learn to escape fear-based parenting, so you can encourage your children to find their confidence and worth in God.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
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