"Two-four-six-eight. Who do we appreciate?"
Do you remember going to your high school football games and cheering for your team? Well...things really haven’t changed that much. Instead of a football team, we now have many others we need to cheer on and encourage.
As we think about these football games from years gone by we can find many parallels that can turn our attention to the present. This has reminded me of how many similar circumstances we find ourselves in with our children as they are learning, developing and growing into responsible adults.
Of course when a touch down was made the crowd went wild. Well, we too should go wild when our children accomplish some great achievement. Even if it is not a major achievement, but a good one, we need to show our excitement. We need to let them know they did a great job -- verbally, a small gift, and lots of hugs, etc. They need to see us as their best cheerleaders.
"Defense! Defense! Push them back, push them back. Way back!"
Our children may not be actually defending something, but they will find themselves many times "without the ball." There are numerous times that our children will face difficult circumstances to just try to keep up, to not fall back, to not lose ground, to not be the "odd one." In those trying times we need to gently be letting them know that they are on the right track, they are doing the right thing, this is only temporary, things will get better, and try to help them to see the big picture. They need to see us as their best cheerleaders.
"That’s okay, that’s alright. We’re going to win, so FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT."
Now, we all have to be realistic about life. There will be times that our kids will drop the ball, they will fail, they will blow it. Those are the times that WE need to see the big picture. Do you remember the saying, "Don’t kick someone when they are down?" Sometimes as parents, we get so focused on correcting our children so that they don’t repeat the same mistake again, that we forget another very valuable ingredient. We need to let them know that they may fall, but they can always get up and that we love them unconditionally. It is also very important to share with our children about the times we faced similar situations in our childhood. They need to hear that we made mistakes and what we learned from them. Wouldn’t it be great to have someone in your life that every time you made a mistake, they would encourage you to get up and keep going? We need to do the same for our children. They need to see us as their best cheerleaders.
And don’t forget about half time. Even though we may not have been inside of the locker room, we knew the coach was giving them a pep talk to go on to victory. Helping our children see a positive perspective on whatever they are facing is invaluable. Never underestimate the significance of kind and encouraging words. There are many times that we may be proud of our children, but never really tell them. Let them hear your praise. They hear enough negatives in their ears throughout their day. We need to be a safe haven and a "watering hole" for our children.
Spoken words can do amazing things "good or bad." I remember trying to teach this lesson to my children. We were using one of the Heritage Builders Family Nights books. We told our children that words are like toothpaste. We gave them each a tube of toothpaste and had them squirt out the toothpaste onto a plate. Then we challenged them to try to put the toothpaste back into the tube. Of course, it was impossible. Well, guess what. So are our words. We can’t take them back once we’ve spoken them. Hopefully this little story will encourage you to be more careful what you say.
And then when the football game was finally over we heard many saying, "Good game!" or "Good job!" Letting our children know that at least we appreciated their effort is also vital. It will help them to try harder next time. It will help them to know that their hard work was not unnoticed whether they win or lose.
"Two-four-six-eight. Who do we appreciate?" You, you , you! (Just a word of caution: don’t be too corny. You may want to find a more updated way of getting the message across). Let there be no doubt. We need to be our child’s best cheerleader.
Copyright © Judy McKeeman
Judy McKeeman is the owner of http://www.EncourageMyKid.com
This article provided by the Family Content Archives at: http://www.Family-Content.com.
