Friday, May 29, 2009

Talk a Lot.....

If you have a child under the age of two, you are probably used to conducting a running monologue for your child about everything. You tell him what you see, you ask her questions and then answer them yourself and probably thoroughly amuse bystanders on a regular basis. Studies have shown you are doing the best thing for your child. The more words your child hears from you, the faster he will develop his own language skills. The constant exposure to your words imprints them in your child's brain. Eventually she starts to understand that those sounds have meaning and that the meanings can get her something she wants more effectively than crying. (Maybe that is why my daughter learned to talk so early. I never was very skillful at deciding which cry was for what!)

I believe that is why it is so important we follow God's command in Deuteronomy 11:19. The writer tells us God wants us to talk to our children about His commands while we are sitting at home, when we are walking on the road (or in our case riding in the car), when we lie down and when we get up. He even goes on to talk about writing the commands on our door frames and gates. God knows the words we say to our children become little tapes that play in their heads the rest of their lives. It makes sense, the more they hear certain words, the stronger those tapes will be.

Monday, May 4, 2009

The Heart of the Matter

Some days, as a parent, it seems as if you are in constant correction mode. I remember, during my daughter's toddler years, there were days I must have said the word "no" at least a hundred times. As our children get older, we may say "no"less often, but we still tend to focus on their behaviors.

What if instead of focusing on our child's behaviors, we focused on the heart of our child? I am not suggesting we should ignore inappropriate behaviors, but that we also take the time to dig a little deeper.