It's About the Heart

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Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

One of our major jobs as parents is to make sure our kids don’t lose heart.  The world is going to shoot arrows into our kids and wound them so that their hearts are damaged. The world is going to tell them they are not pretty enough, smart enough, athletic enough. So often parents – most often unknowingly -- are adding more to the wounds than they are healing them by adding to the “not enough” noise in their lives.

We need to be different. We need to be parents that heal our kids’ hearts and help them to guard their heart and to live their best story.

How do we do that? Some suggestions:

• Tell them who they are in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old is gone, the new is here!” Regardless of their failures or their struggles, they are always a new creation in Christ fully loved and fully known. ‍
• Tell them they were created special by God. Isaiah 43:6-7 says, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth – everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” God doesn’t make junk. He made us in His image and for His glory. Talk to your kids about their strengths and how God wants to use their unique giftings for His glory in their lives. ‍
• Tell them you have their back. Tell them you will always be there for them, a safe place where they can always land no matter how hard they fall. Nothing they do will ever take your love away from them and they can come to you no matter what they do or what the world does to them.

Think of your child’s heart as a garden that needs to be tended every day. When we tend that garden well, the plants in the garden will flourish. When we don’t pay close attention to the garden, the weeds of the world will come and choke out those plants, taking away the vital nutrients they need to grow.

How are you inspiring and tending and guarding the hearts of your children? Ask the Holy Spirit today to show you an insight into inspiring your child’s heart and then take a step toward doing what He suggests.  

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