Keeping Family First Networking Site

Great Book for Busy Moms! by Anita S. Lane
	Lessons My Toddler Taught Me: A Devotional for Mothers of Young Children by Anita S. Lane Click Here for more information and to Purchase!

Bookviews
	Book of the Month Living Simply With Children by Marie Sherlock
	Chocolate Pages Book Review Rhythms of Grace by Marilynn Griffith

Building Self-Esteem In Your Childpowering Your Wife to Be Her Best
by Terrence J. Wilson

When we take a look at the status of our youth today, we see that many of them have a major lack of self-esteem. This lack of self-esteem is truly the root cause of most issues our youths are facing today: different forms of sex, drugs, drinking and other things our children are coerced into due to peer pressure.

Dealing with the Root Cause
Most times when we find our children involved with these things we like to focus on what they are doing, and not why they are doing it. In our current society, we are so cosmetic (external driven) that as long as everything looks good on the outside we neglect to pay much attention to what is going on underneath the surface. On the outside everything looks good, but on the inside our children are longing for our affection and love.

As an example, I want to share with you a story my late grandfather used to tell me about wood chips. He used to say, “Don’t climb a hill of dry wood chips during the summer. Those wood chips may look fine on the outside but the heat of the summer’s sun is stirring a fire at its core. For some time nothing may seem to be happening but ONE DAY the fire that has been burning at the core causes the entire mound to become engulfed with fire.”

How many times have you seen your child be fine in the 4th grade but all of a sudden their behavior erupts in the 5th grade. Because you never saw the fire burning at the core of your child’s life you never thought twice about finding out what was going on in their lives. All of a sudden this sweet adorable child changes in what seems to be an overnight metamorphous.

Well, even though the change wasn’t overnight the relationship you once thought that you had is now drifting away all because of wood chips burning in broad day light. Does it mean that you are a bad parent? No. Does it mean that your child is no longer sweet and adorable? No. They will always be sweet and adorable; however, their actions may not.

Water Puts Out Fire
If this describes your situation you may be wondering how can I deal with this change. Well, as my late grandfather would continue the story he would say, “The only way to preserve a mound of wood chips through the heat is to continuously water them down.” The same holds true with our children.

We have to constantly be engaged with what is going on in the lives of our children so that we can continuously water down any fire the devil will try to bring into their lives. Most of these fires come as attacks on their self-esteem. Peer pressure basically says that “you are not in” and it plays on the self-esteem of the child as a way to pressure them to get involved in things that are against the wishes of God and their parents.

But when you find a child with a strong self-esteem, that child will be able to stand the heat because they have been showered with self-esteem by their parent. The enemy is in a battle for your children so you have to equip them with the love, nurturing, training and self-esteem they need in order to be successful. And as a father, the best way to build self-esteem is simply by playing an active role in their lives, which let’s them know that they’re special.

    Copyright ©2007 by Terrence Wilson

About Terrence Wilson
Terrence Wilson is the author of In Search of a Father, radio host of Changing a Generation, and life coach, is the founder of Wilstonian Enterprises, an organization dedicated to promoting spiritual growth in individuals through educating them with the principles of God so that they may conform their lives unto the image of Christ.