Life-giving words

Who doesn't respond to a sincere affirmation? I do! Today someone said "I'm so proud of you!" Yesterday someone said, "I count you as one of my dearest friends." I feel like I can take on the world now! We all need those words. We can shrink without them--in our own eyes at least.

Here are 10 ways to Build Up A Child from Jody Capehart in her book Touching Hearts Changing Lives

The question for you is :can I challenge myself to affirm my child 5 times a day? 10 times? Do I need to start with 3 sincere times?


1. Express sincere gratitude: "Thank you for helping me!"
2. Encourage the child to share a skill: "Who else could you show how to do that?"
3. Empathize: "I bet it felt great to finish that project!"
4. Identify consequences: "You really helped Mrs. Gardner when you collected the left-over bulletins."
5. Appreciate uniqueness: "I never would have thought about it that way."
6. Applaud effort: "I can see a lot of work went into this project."
7. Emphasize growth: "You are making enormous improvements each week."
8. Encourage elaboration: "Tell me more about what happened."
9. Acknowledge good choices: "I know that was a hard decision."
10. Apply scriptural truths: "You were acting in exactly the way Jesus described when he said, 'Do to others as you want them to do to you'"

I recommit to life-giving words for people God puts in my life!