Hello there,
Today, I want to share a simple lesson I have learnt as a parent, so you can call this a Mummy blog sorta post, lol.
So, my daughter was walking on the couch this morning while I was busy with kitchen shenanigans. She wasn’t just walking to and fro on the couch though, I heard her chanting the words over and over again “I AM BOLD”, “I AM BOLD”… I was confused and torn between shouting at her to jump down from my couch and waiting to know what her motive was actually. Well, let’s say she did it for about a minute or less and got distracted by something else. I looked at her and smiled because it pleased my soul to the core – and no, not the trying to destroy my couch part but the chant part.
The backstory to her chant is another story but I will do well to summarize so you get the whole point. My daughter used to go about saying “I am scared”, “It is scary”, “It’s a monster” e.t.c whilst playing and goofing around but it didn’t sit well with my born-again self so I used to hush her and tell her “No, you aren’t scared, you are BOLD!” I didn’t want to assume it was a joke so I corrected her over and over again. I did that a number of times and I noticed that with every correction, she reduced the “I am scared” talk. Thankfully, my son joined me in correcting her too, so that whenever she made the scared statement, he was there to say “No, you are BOLD, you are not scared.”
2nd Timothy 1:7 says: “For God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” This is one of the verses that my kids know by heart. I taught them that whenever they feel afraid they must realise that the feeling isn’t of God and they must say to themselves that they have the spirit of power, love and a sound mind to handle whatever they are faced with.
On typing this right now, my kids are playing with toys and trucks around the house, then I overheard my son whilst playing characters with his toys say that one of the toys was afraid of the other bla, bla, bla… then he caught himself halfway and said “No! I am not afraid (referring to the toy), I am BOLD!” I didn’t say anything but I felt happy within me. Not to say I do everything right as a parent, far from it, but when it comes to words, I do not take it lightly because I know and have experienced the power words can have over our lives. So, from a very young age, I want them to learn to not just throw words carelessly out there, then those words would come back to create situations they would have to live or struggle with. But to know that whatever comes out of their mouths have power to ensnare them or to give them life. We are a work in progress but I am seeing the fruits so I wouldn’t back down.
Decided to make this a blog post because I can see that most times, parents tend to focus on “big” stuff like character building, academics and life skills that we forget this little thing – WORDS! Teach them to speak life over themselves, even if you do speak it over them. Empower them to do it by themselves so that when you aren’t there, they know to annul words of death spoken over them by people out there. This is a core part of training a child in the way they should grow and when they grow, they won’t depart from it. Teach them scriptures from a young age; trust me, their brains are so powerful to hold alot of verses in you’ll be shocked. Go a step further by teaching them which verse to use when faced with a particular challenge too. The Holy Spirit is there to break it down for them the way they will understand, so do not overthink stuff. Just do your part by teaching it to them and living it out before them to see.
Love you.
Love this ♥️
Thanks Theolene. XX
This is a really wonderful write up!!! Our WORDS are powerful…?
Thanks friend, yes they truly are. XOXO
Very Profound mummy?
Thanks Sis. XX