The other day, I was a substitute teacher and had lunch duty. A little kindergartener raised her hand and I came over to her. She had two notes in her lunch bag. She asked me to read them. One said, “You are beautiful!” The other said, “You are smart!” The little girl beamed as I said, “Two very true statements!”
This cartoon came to me the other day when my pastor was preaching a sermon on Ephesians 2:10.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 2:10 (New Living Translation) from Bible Gateway
To be creative, you need to think of yourself as a masterpiece. In order to feel creative energy, you must see yourself as a beautiful creation. For you are a masterpiece!
Cartoon of an annoyed boy next to a sleeping mom. The boy says, “Hey! It’s four in the morning. Why aren’t I the center of your universe?”
Whenever you become a parent, you want to do everything you can to make sure that precious child will have a great life. You start to think about college. You may have a baseball mitt already picked out. You may even start dreaming about what a great boy or girl that child will be.
Of course, nobody can prepare you for the challenges. Maybe the baby has colic for the first few months. Perhaps you had no idea how much time it would take to take care of this little one. But you pull through and continue to think of your child’s future even when they’re driving you crazy. Everyone wants to see their child succeed, right?
There is one secret to parenting that will help your child succeed, even thrive in the world and it isn’t about make him or her the center of your universe!
“Wait a minute!” you may ask. “What about my child’s self esteem?”
I’ve got news for you. Making your child the center of the universe will only cause her to be disappointed when she gets into the real world. Either he will find out he wasn’t as special as he though and begin a downward slide, or he will push back against the world and end up becoming a jerk and a bully.
Now you shouldn’t make your child feel horrible either. Beating anybody with words or deeds doesn’t make them better. It only makes them resentful, bitter and a bully.
The secret is to teach our kids to love others as they love themselves. You can’t do that by making them feel they are better or worse than anyone else.  You do that by showing love and respect to others as well as themselves. You do that by teaching them to respect and obey you, even while they learn to respect themselves and others.
If you teach your kids they are special… but so are the other seven billion people on this planet, then they can have a hope and a future.
Cartoon of a man fish. a boy stares at him. The caption says, “There were times Ryan wished his mother wasn’t a mermaid.”
Deep down, everyone wishes they were someone else. Personally, I think it would be nice to be half-fish/half-man. I’d never have to leave the beach!
Cartoon of frog to princess. The frog says, “Let’s be honest. I’m not a prince. But if you’ll kiss me, I’ll feel good about myself.”
I picture my wife thinking something along this line when we first dated. I’m glad she ended up kissing the frog. She’s still royalty and I’m a better quality frog for it.