Ten Words Every Child or Spouse or Friend Needs to Hear

Parenting is the easiest job in the world, it's a no brainer, you know exactly what to do.....and then you become a parent.

Suddenly all that stuff you knew, you forget.

Or, you find out it's hard to carry through with it even if it is the right thing to do.

 When you were thinking about it before you had a child, it was easy to be tough or soft or say it just right. But now, now there is a real child and they're part of you and it's not so easy anymore.

Fred A. Hartley has a wonderful thought on raising kids.

The great thing is, it works even after they have been raised, you know that time of life when you see what all you did wrong.

This idea will even work in your marriage relationship, it works with co-workers and church friends and neighbors, well it just plain works with every relationship you have.

It works because it reaches out to us in the perfect way, it reaches a deep need that each of us has.

The idea didn't originate with Fred, he got it from God, the thing is Fred was smart enough to see what God did and to take a hold of it and put it into practice.

God is so complex,,, he is so other than, he is so far beyond us and yet he gives us direction in the most simplest of ways.

If you have a Bible get it.

Now find the book of Mark.

Its in the New Testament, it goes,  Matthew, Mark.......

For now go to Mark chapter 9 and then find verse 7.

Look at the last ten words in that verse.

This is what they say, this is what God says about his son. "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him."

Seems simple doesn't it?

God not only was encouraging his Son, he was giving us a lesson about children and it doesn't matter the age of our children.  They will respond to this no matter how old they are.

You see  when we think about it, we all have three basic needs.

We need acceptance.

We need affection.

We need affirmation.

God hit all three of those and he did it with ten words.

"This is my son."........acceptance

"Whom I love.".........affection

:"Listen to him"........affirmation, (he is worth listening to)

Who but God could take something as huge as parenting and something as big as the needs of a child, grown or not, and sum it up like that.

So for today, don't worry about getting it all right, you won't, and even if you do, tomorrow you will mess up.

Take it from a mother of four, I got more wrong than I got right...I can only imagine the stories my kids can tell their spouses about me.

But I'm not going to camp there, I'm going to acknowledge what I do and what I did and then I'm going to take these verses and live in them.

I'm going to try and see each person I'm around through the lense of this verse.

I want each person I am with to know that I accept them, that I love them and that I have think they are of value.

Somehow when God puts it out there for us like this, when he puts it in ten little words it makes a parent or a spouse feel empowered.

We don't have to feel overwhelmed or defeated, that was never God's intent.

All he has for us to do is apply these ten words to everyone we meet today.

I'm so excited.

I can do it and you can too!!!

God has shown us how, he left the plan, he lived the example so let's get busy, times a wastin and there is a world of people who need love.

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