You can make more friends in 2 months by becoming more interested in other people than you can in 2 years by trying to get people interested in you. –Dale Carnegie
Tag: Child
30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 1
I was inspired this morning to start a 30 day Blog Challenge. The questions are from an interesting little book I picked up a while ago at a thrift store. THE MOM & DAD QUESTION, CREATIVE QUESTIONS to HONOR the FAMILY by Bret Nicholaus and Paul Lowrie. I will post one question per day and I will give you an answer that came from times of our discussing this little book at our family‘s dinner table. I look forward to my reader’s responses, so YES by all means leave me YOUR answers in the comments section of this blog. Since The Holidays are coming up, maybe you can pick up your own copy of this book and bring it to your own family’s holiday celebrations 🙂
Question #1:
For each one of your children, where were you and what were you doing when you realized that it was definitely time for your baby to be born?
Answer: Child #1: I was in the hospital where they induced me. Child #2: I was home trying to get some sleep when at midnight, the contractions were coming at regular intervals. Child #3: I was making lunch for my 2 other kids who were toddlers at the time. Child #4: I was preparing dinner for my whole family and suddenly I had to call my midwife.
Label Pickle Jars NOT People!
Image via WikipediaI hate labels. There, that says it all. I have but only one name I answer to and that is the name my daddy gave me at birth. To show how much I despise labels when I first met my husband he and I were arguing while on our way home. We were at a red light and he crossed the line by calling me a female dog; I went berserk for a minute and I just raised my foot and put it right through the windshield of his car. He never labeled me like that again!
From the time I lost my parents I was labeled an orphan, and might I add that happened to me at a very young age. Then later on the other labels came and it made me boil inside because all I wanted to do was be myself; and that’s hard to achieve when you are being constantly categorized, stereo typed and labeled. The only things that have to have labels are food products, medicines and anything else that is not a breathing, walking living soul with a heart.
I once went to a counselor to try to figure out somethings in my past. After I told her what I’d been through she never labeled me; she did me a huge favor and reminded me I was anything but a victim because I had over come so much with God‘s help. THAT was great news to hear and it set me free. This same counselor though, did my husband a disservice. After several sessions with him she labeled him co-dependant. Why was that a disservice to him? Because he began to cling to that label and it made him remain the same. I have observed for several years now how labeling someone serves to cripple them and they stay bound by the words spoken over them.
Life and death are in the tongue. Our words can break the shackles that bind us or they can serve to further imprison us. Label a child stupid and he will believe that he is stupid all of his life. Tell a child that she is brilliant and she will aspire to much. People are not jars of pickles so top labeling them!
2 years ago we met with a family counselor because we all had issues. After our first session Bruce, the counselor told my husband and I that our children are a cut above the rest of any kids he had ever met. Last night we hear something entirely different. We spoke with a well meaning person who after a couple of hours of listening to our family air out some very strong feelings in a counseling setting, said that my kids are victims. WTH? Things didn’t change so much in our home from the last time we saw a family counselor to now. Be careful what you let some well meaning counselor speak over yourself or your children.
After this encounter, my kids came up to me right away and told me, ” Mom, how can that man call us victims when our last family counselor told us we are a cut above the rest? Mom, sure we’ve been hurt by stuff but that’s life! And, mom, victims are people who get hurt but they never get up, they stay there, wounded.” My 15 year old daughter put it so eloquently, ” I just reign from my place of pain.” My kids let me know they didn’t appreciate what was spoken over them, they didn’t receive one bit of it. So my husband and I prayed over them and broke the power of those words.
God, I pray that you help all of us stop labeling one another. Give us eyes to see people they way you see us. You are such an awesome God because you never label us, you just call us your children. Help us do likewise.
Bullies Are Everywhere..Including Places Like God’s House
I have been home schooling my kids for quite some time now and we are used to the bullying we’ve encountered from other people. After while you just grow thick skin and you don’t let the snide remarks and nasty comments uttered by bullies get to us. Ignorance regarding home schooling prevails in the play ground, at the library, in the dance studio and whatever other places kids go to meet up with kids. You wouldn’t expect to find bullies in God‘s house now would you?
That’s the question that has arisen here at home. We’ve recently begun attending a very nice church and my kids are more grieved now, than they were when they were being bullied by some ignorant neighborhood kids. What’s sad is that the bullying doesn’t appear to be as nasty as what my kids were getting back in our old neighborhood. In church, the kids do it with a smile on their faces and it’s all in good fun right? 
BULL”Y, n. A noisy, blustering overbearing fellow, more distinguished for insolence and empty menaces, than for courage, and disposed to provoke quarrels.
BULL”Y, v.t. To insult and overbear with noise and blustering menaces
I have cause for concern when my 10 year old tells me that someone 17 years old teases her incessantly about her being home schooled. She doesn’t make any jokes about this boy going to public school because she’s too scared to say anything back to him. So please think about the next time you want to say something “cute” and joky- joky to someone else. Are you making them the butt end of the joke? Do you do it to feel better about yourself? When you belittle someone, you’re showing the rest of the world how little you really are.
To Young People Everywhere
What happened to the time when a young man and a young woman could have a nice conversation without feeling as if they had to have feelings between them? We live in times where the media is constantly bombarding our children and us with sexual images and it’s gotten to the point where young people are almost paranoid to be friends with the opposite sex.
The school system hasn’t helped out our young people either. Since grade school children get “educated” regarding sexual relations; and might I add, not always between male and female. So it’s no wonder that by the time kids get to high school, a lot of them are sexualized before their time. But the schools aren’t the only ones to blame; too many parents let their young children watch age inappropriate movies and TV shows without a care in the world. They let Hollywood educate their children in all things including sex.
Young men and women: Please understand that not everyone’s after you. Every person you meet doesn’t want to go to bed with you. Everyone does not have ulterior motives to manipulate you into a relationship. Young men and women: The word FRIEND means someone to talk to. Next time remember that before you go and over analyze; in doing so, you end up showing us how conceited you are and how big your ego is. Platonic friendships between males and females DO exist.
CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE
Good Day!
I wanted to share this piece with you. If you have children remember that they won’t be little forever; childhood is such a fleeting time and they grow up before long. Do you ever look at your kids and think, ‘ I rememeber the day I brought you home from the hospital.’ I do, especially around birthdays. I have 3 teens in my home and 1 pre-teen and I never let a day go by without telling them or showing them in some way that they are loved and appreciated; they need to hear words like that more than ever these days. Even if you don’t have any children of your own, find a young person to be good to; remember they ARE our future and we need to invest in them. Have a great day and hug your kid/kids today!!
Children Learn what they live…If a child lives with criticism,
He learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule,
He learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame,
He learns to feel guilty.
He learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility,
He learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule,
He learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame,
He learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance,
He learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement,
He learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise,
He learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness,
He learns justice.
If a child lives with security,
He learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval,
He learns to like himself.
If a child lives with honesty,
He learns truth.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
He learns to find love in the world.
Work!
Hola!
I want to touch on the value of teaching children to work at an early age. Home schooling is not just about opening the books everyday; it is so much more than that. I have given my children certain chores to do around the house that they are responsible for completing. This is to instill in them to learn to value work; all kinds of work. This is an ethic they can take with them for their whole lives. Washing dishes, making beds, cleaning bath rooms, cooking, grocery shopping; and countless other jobs that go with the running of a home are all as important as the type of work you get a grade for or later on in life, a pay check for. This kind of work is humbling and it helps instill character in children.
Proverbs 14:23
In all work there is profit. So please teach your kids the value of work!
Children Are Natural Learners
Hello again!
I hope you are having a great summer! I want to touch on a slightly over looked fact. Have you ever noticed that children are naturally curious? Albert Einstein referred to it as, “A holy curiosity for enquiry.” This needs to be nurtured in our children and one way to do so is to encourage their questions. My teacher in the 3rd grade, Ms. McClellan once told me that there are no dumb questions except that ones you don’t ask. I never forgot that and I do the same with my kids.
So next time you are pressed for time and your child comes up to you and peppers you with a myriad of seemingly silly question remember; what maybe obvious to you maybe a mystery to him because he’s new in this world. So count to ten, take a deep breath and relax if you don’t know the answer to his question. Then be brave enough to tell him, “I don’t know but we can find out together.” I will leave you with a couple of quotes on education. Adios!
“Education has become too important to leave to educators.” – Peter Drucker
“Educate a man and you educate an individual-educate a woman and you educate a family.”
-Agnes Gripps
Eva Santiago 