Ten Ways You Can Shape a Child's Life
Page Four
I thought, What a way to build up a child, to give her a positive image of herself as she starts out in life! No one goes through life without being knocked down a few times. But the child who has a good beginning will likely be able to get up and bounce back.
It pays to look for ways in which we can compliment the children who cross our paths. I've often thought that it's almost immoral to let a child go even one day without being complimented at least once.
That's how important compliments are!
9. Share your own experience: When children you know are faced with a problem, sometimes it is encouraging to hear how you handled a similar situation at about the same age. Adults appear more real to children when they can see us as having had problems resembling the ones they are encountering. They gain courage and insight that helps them handle their own situations in a better way.
Each generation tends to feel it has greater and different problems than any others before them. But when we recount incidents in our own lives, young people see some similarities. Everybody likes stories. Sharing our experiences in an appropriate way often helps children more than a lecture on how they should do certain things.
 Sharing our experiences in an appropriate
way often helps children more than a lecture
on how they should do certain things.
Our great example for sharing what God has done on a personal level comes from the Bible itself. God was careful to preserve for us the experiences of His people from the beginning. We read in Romans 15:4 that this record was written "that we through the patience and comfort of the Scripture might have hope." So, as we share with children and young people what God has done for us, this can help them have a hope-filled outlook on life.
10. Lead a child to Christ and encourage him in his Christian walk: The greatest influence anyone can ever exert on a child is to share the fact that God created him and loves him and wants to be involved in his life. This is the influence that lasts beyond this life into an eternity with Jesus Christ.
We need to establish a good relationship with the child so he will want to listen when we talk about spiritual matters. Then we should take the Word of God and point out verses like John 3:16, Romans 3:23 , 6:23 , and John 5:24. These Scriptures make it clear that while we are finite and sinful, we can know God through Jesus Christ. Don't crowd the young person's mind with too many Scripture verses. Just be sure the child understands God's plan of salvation and that it includes him or her—that God loves him, that Jesus died for him, and that he or she needs to turn from sinning, ask for God's forgiveness, then reach out and accept God's free gift of salvation.
The greatest influence anyone can ever exert on
a child is to share the fact that God created him and
loves him and wants to be involved in his life.
It's not enough, however, to merely start a young person out on the road; he needs regular guidance and encouragement. He also needs to be trained to spend time reading the Bible and praying each day so that he can learn the mind of God and grow in the Christian life. We can have a great impact as we both model and encourage a child in these things. Teach the value of fellowship with others who believe in Jesus and want to serve Him.
Crucial to your relationship with your child is the example you model. You're not fooling your child. He or she knows whether you live a consistent Christian life. Do you send them to Sunday School? Or do you go and take them so that they know you consider Sunday School and church important? Do you criticize the pastor and church staff in front of your children? If they have serious faults and problems, perhaps you need to search out a better place of worship. This thing of EXAMPLE is pivotal. Don't blow it!
You may do a number of worthwhile things
in the course of your life. But nothing will pay
such dividends as investing in a child and
influencing him for both time and eternity.
We can also influence the young Christian tremendously by giving him fine Christian books and magazines, along with good computer games, videos, and programs written especially for Christian youth. He can nourish his spiritual life and mature in his faith by these means. A word to the wise along this line. It helps if you select Christian material geared to the young person's age and, where possible, to his interests. There are so many "just right" materials available today, and a good Christian bookstore or website can help you find them.
As you mingle with children, whatever the setting, whatever your relationship—parent, teacher, grandparent, neighbor—seek to have a positive influence on them. One of the greatest joys of life is to know that a child in whom you have invested yourself has grown up to be a man or a woman of God. This is something every Christian adult can do.
The solemn truth is that the film of childhood can never be rewound—there can be no second run! Children grow up all too fast. They become less flexible, less open, and our opportunities to have an impact on their lives decrease.
In summary, I would urge you to seriously consider these ten effective ways to shape a child's life:
- Notice him
- Encourage him
- Allow him to talk
- Listen to him
- Show an interest in his future
- Let him ask questions
- Lift up ideals before him
- Compliment him
- Share your own experiences
- Lead him to Christ and encourage him in his Christian walk.
You may do a number of worthwhile things in the course of your life. But nothing will pay such dividends as investing in a child and influencing him for both time and eternity!
Copyright © 2001 by Narramore Christian Foundation
 Return to Page One
Dr. Clyde Narramore is the Founder of the Narramore Christian Foundation, was President for half-a-century, is a well-known radio and conference speaker, and author.
NOTE: To email this article to a friend, return to page one and click on the "E-mail a Friend" button link at the top right of the page.
|
