Do you look in the backseat of your car and see the gifts that your children are to you or do you see baggage? Do you see what unique abilities God has placed in your children and then help them to reach their fullest potential? Maybe you think they are too little or maybe you just can’t seem to find anything positive about your children, but I bet if you really sat back and thought about it, you could see something, even something little, in your children that if given the right nutrients, would bloom.
Here’s an example from my family. I have a son that is tough for me to parent, but he has always seemed to have a unique ability with arts and crafts. I mean “unique”. It was and still is never about the end product for him. It’s about the process. I’ll never forget the day he brought me his “staple art”. It was a piece of paper covered in staples. It was interesting to say the least, but what I realized was that he learned how to use the stapler that day. I saw that unique ability in him early on and have tried to foster that for him instead of focusing on what exasperates me about him.
Now he thrives at art and if there’s anything in life that gives him more pride, it is knowing that he is an artist. I love hearing him tell others about how he is an artist (as if it is a fact and not relative). I could’ve ignored that in my busyness and frustrations with him and who knows what would’ve happened, but instead because I have made what he loves available to him and encouraged him, he smiles when the word “artist” comes up–as if the word was made just for him. I simply focused in on the positive, believed in him and now he believes in himself. That’s powerful if you ask me! That reminds me of my new favorite quote again. I’ve just got to bring it up again and again because something as simple as believing in someone can change the world! Imagine how different our world would be if everyone had someone that saw something special in them then believed in them.
“Believing in someone else, so they can believe in themselves, is a small but hugely significant act of leadership.” – Carly Fiorina
In the midst of your busyness today, I encourage you to look–I mean really look–at your children and see if there is one thing in each one of them that you could help bloom. All it takes is believing in them and I promise they’ll take it from there.
