I wondered last night if I would really be able to fill up an entire year like this. Then I started thinking about all the things I can really teach. Could my life pain actually be a blessing in disguise? I really think it is. There are so many things I could teach parents, survivors and Christians out there.
So today I am going to start with something I had to erase at the end of my message yesterday. It has to deal with our children and the proper way to help with their grief.
So many times, as parents, we have a difficult time helping our children when they are emotional. Why is that?
I really think that for most of us it is a comfort thing. I know as a child I was taught to stuff my feelings down. I wasn't allowed to grieve, be angry, or to address my feelings whatsoever.
How do you feel when your child is hurt, or crying? Do you try and "shush" it away. When they ask questions that are far more advanced than their age do you shut it down quickly. If you do...think about WHY you do it? It is because it makes you uncomfortable.
This is the worst thing that people can teach their children! Stuffing emotion or questions make a child a) an emotion stuffer in grown up life (which will help lead them to a life of searching for why they are so depressed or repressed and B) teaches them not to express themselves, to be timid and helps make them think that their thoughts are not important.
I am a PRIME example of an emotion and thought stuffer!!! In the great words of Jack Nicholson, "Don't you be like me". Don't teach your children to be like me...or yourself for that matter!
What I am saying is when you child is hurting, talk to them about it. Hold them, console them and let them know that they can always talk to you about anything. Sure, some of their questions...like "where do babies come from" at 4 and 5 years old are hard to address. Just make it an age appropriate answer for the time. Don't tell them that it is something you can't talk about. By the things we do, the ways we react and the way we treat emotion and curiosity in our homes will have a lasting effect on how your child looks at the world around them.
So I ask you today, what ways do you feel you were repressed as a child and do you see yourself doing it to your kids today?
Psalms 127:3- Behold children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Matthew 19:14- But Jesus said. "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them: for such is the kingdom of heaven.
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