Raising a Strong-Spirited Child

Bringing up a strong-spirited child can be challenging. I remember the days of crying all the way home from having Brandon participate in playtime with other children. I felt sure that I was the worst mom in the world because my toddler could not be contained. He was so determined, so independent, and so insistent.

But let me encourage you as a mom who now has adult children … those things that might aggravate you about your child today might be the very things when matured will make them great for God’s Kingdom tomorrow.

As you and I watch the news with school shootings and bullying that goes on, we may wonder, “How can we protect our kids from something like that?” Nothing is more terrifying than the realization that we cannot protect them from life. However, we can pray over our children before they run out the door to school or play.

Author Mark Batterson wrote, “If you determine to circle your children in prayer, you will shape their destinies. Your prayers will live on in their lives long after you die.”

Our children may be a wee-bit difficult, but keep loving them, praying for them, and leading them. I once read of three simple mothering perspectives that God has graciously used to help us with our children:

1. Don’t take too much credit for the child’s good.

2. Don’t take too much credit for the child’s wrong.

3. Don’t try to raise a good child. Raise a God-following adult.

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.