Do Our Words Speak Life To Our Children?

At the end of the day during his first week of kindergarten, Little Bit threw his arms around my thighs, burying his face in my belly. Through twinkling eyes and a beaming smile, he said, “I have a surprise for you!”

He made me close my eyes, took me by the hand, and led me down the hallway into our bedroom. When he had me perfectly positioned, he told me to open my eyes.

At first, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but then I found it, in all its glory. A hand-written note from his teacher, praising him for a job well done, taped right above our bed on the wall. He had shown love to one of his classmates, and his teacher wanted us to know about it.

I reinforced his excitement by praising this character quality he had demonstrated at school, hugged his neck, and didn’t think more about it.

But I began to see a pattern.

Every time his teacher sent a note home telling us something she had seen in his heart, he would tape it to the wall above our bed. Over time, it became known as Little Bit’s “Wall of Fame.” It’s now decorated with streamers and has spilled over to other parts of our room. We all have a love language, and the evidence points to the fact that Little Bit’s love language may be words of affirmation!

Regardless of our love language, however, speaking words of encouragement and life rather than words of condemnation and death is a more fruitful way to communicate.  After all, scripture is chock full of instruction in this regard:

1 Thessalonians 5:11

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

Ephesians 4:29

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

Proverbs 12:25

“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad."

This isn’t to say we should never offer reproof, but I think we’re wise to consider what characterizes us:

Are we characterized by speaking life or death?

Last week, I wrote about using the extra margin that summer provides to work on things as a family we don’t have time for during the school year. We do this every summer.

We try to do the same thing as it relates to our parenting. We have adopted a philosophy for how we parent that directs our steps upon the path.

But let’s be real.

The chaos of the school year often results in us hiking off trail. The slower pace of summer provides a great opportunity to re-direct ourselves in the good habits we know but don’t always practice.

Parenting requires that we draw boundaries (“no”) and redirect behavior (“don’t do that”) continually. As a result, we can easily fall into the trap of negative speech if we don’t mind our tongues. But we’ve found that when we’re characterized by negative speech, the atmosphere in our home is negative. Conversely, when we speak encouragement and life, the atmosphere in our home is life-giving.

Imagine that!

So this summer, we’re minding our tongues, paying close attention to instruct our children with words of encouragement and life as often as possible, saving language of reproof for times when it’s absolutely necessary.

Here are 5 ways in which we can speak encouragement and life to our children:

1.       Say “yes” as often as possible so that “no” is saved for times it is necessary.

2.       Praise their effort rather than the outcome so we don’t instill in them a fear of failure and so we do encourage them to develop work ethic and grit.    

3.       Affirm character qualities we observe in them such as those identified in Galatians 5:22-23.

4.       When giving instruction, speak in terms of what we hope to see, not what we don’t want to see. (“Don’t spill your cereal” becomes “Let’s try to keep all our cereal in the bowl!”)

5.       When giving reproof, elevate the virtue, not the vice, and call out the behavior, not the person. (“You are rude” becomes “That was not very respectful. In our home, we treat others with respect.”)

These tactics are simple enough. But we live in a culture that’s plagued by negative speech. Just as “we are what eat,” so too is it that “we say what we hear.” As a result, it takes conscious effort and dedicated resolve to re-train our tongues.

That’s why summer is a great time for us to evaluate how we’re doing in this regard and identify areas in which we would be wise to improve.

Here's to using our words to create a life-giving atmosphere in our home!