The greatest gift you can give your child is a knowledge of God. There is no greater gift.
In order to be able to give this gift to your child you, yourself, must first have a relationship with the living Lord.
“To lead someone else onto the right road, means we need to know the road ourselves. If those who are being led (our children) are to feel safe and free, they must have unshakeable faith and trust in the one who leads them” (Solly Ozrovech).
As parents we need to allow God to lead us so we can properly lead our children. Before He can lead us, however, we have to acknowledge Him as Lord and Saviour in our own lives.
The second greatest gift you can give your child is to instill in them a sense of their own self-worth. They need to grow up in the knowledge that God loves them and desires the best for them. They need to know that no matter what happens to them in life they will, with God’s help, be able to overcome any difficulty.
In order for our children to grow into their full potential as human beings, to develop into compassionate and caring individuals they need to experience failure, sadness, depression and loneliness in order to appreciate success, happiness, a good mental attitude and to learn the value of friendship.
The third greatest gift you can give your child is the gift of listening to them.
Our responsibility as parents is to allow our children to experience, feel and express the full gamut of all the emotions mentioned above.
We need to give them the gift of listening to them without trying to jump in and fix everything for them. To advise them, to guide them and then to let them have the freedom to manage and own their emotions.
All of these gifts can be summed up in one word – LOVE
Our children need to grow up believing and living the second greatest commandment that Jesus gave us. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Matthew 22:3)
Our children need to be able to love themselves in order that they can show love to others.
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