Have you ever heard someone say to your child, "Aaah, you look just like your mother?"
Or better yet, have you ever noticed that your preschooler pronounces words like you or your tween tries to mimic you?
It seems that our children, like it or not, come to pick up our mannerisms. After all, we are typically the people that they spend the most time with. But have you ever asked yourself...what does it mean for my child to be "just like me"...
Am I frustrated all the time?
Do I have a list of bad habits?
How do I treat people?
If my child acted like me, would I want to be around them?
The answers to these questions are so very important. Our children learn to imitate us. This was brought to my attention years ago with my daughter Trinity. At the time, she was two years old. I started to notice that every time she got frustrated she would say "Oh my God" under her breath. My first thought was, "Where did she get that from?" Then I realized, she got it from me! In fact, how she said it was exactly the way I would.
Certainly, there were worst things she could say. But I felt guilty. Quickly, I had to explain to her that its better to say, "Oh my goodness". It literally took months to break her out of that habit.
As a mother of five, I have learned it is much easier to teach life-giving behaviors than to break destructive habits.
It seems that sometimes we spend so much time looking to outside sources for explanations for our children's behaviors. Challenge yourself to write a list of the things that you may be doing that you would not want your child to do....and work to change them. Because when you are least expecting it, your children are observing you! And of course, so is God. He has entrusted us with these children. Let's be the best examples we can be to our children!
The reality is that the more we become like Him, the more our children will follow.
The first step in victorious parenting involves YOU evaluating YOU!
In order to be the best parents for our children we have to focus on evaluating our relationship with our Father. He will train us how to be the perfect models for the children in our life!
"Train your children in the way they should go and when they are old, they shall not depart." Proverbs 22:6
For more on victorious living check out the blog here. If you like this article on parenting, LIKE and SHARE below.