Go here to read: Part 1
Teaching the Difficult Child, Part 2 from the workshop by the same name.
In our last installment I shared with you how the Lord began helping me see my role as a mother of a “difficult” child a little differently. I realized I had to change, and I developed the Acronym
S-T-O-P
The S in stop actually stood for:
S-Stop the sarcasm, joking, and belittling of my child
Now, the T in S-T-O-P stands for TRUTH.
T-truth- I became convinced that from that day forward, I would try to speak only the absolute truth from God’s word over her.
I got in the habit of telling ALL my children: “I’m so glad God gave you to me. You are beautiful. I adore you. You are funny. You are kind. You are sweet. You are a delight.”
I also set about renewing my mind daily with scriptures that tell me God’s opinion of my precious children:
- Psalm 127:3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.
- Proverbs 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
- Psalm 127:4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.
Psalm 139 was the most powerful to me.
- Psalm 139: 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
If God was so smitten with my child that he created each and everyone personally in my womb, who was I to say that any one of them was “less than” I hoped, prayed and dreamed? I tell you, I was wrong in how I perceived her. Just because my child was different, it did not mean that she was less than. I just needed to learn a different way to approach her unique personality and God-given temperament.
Tomorrow, I am going to share the “O” in stop- Overhaul your mind to a new way of thinking and acting. This is where we get into the nuts and bolts of teaching a “difficult” child.
To read the next installment, go here
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If you are in need of additional resources on this topic, I have the following suggestions:
Teaching the Difficult Child MP3-audio recording of the workshop
Teaching the Difficult Child CD-audio recording of the workshop
Loving and Teaching the Difficult Child
Beverly Bradley It’s Not Supposed to Be This Hard!
Beverly Bradley Warrior Mother: Fighting FOR the Kids, not WITH them
You may also want to read the following article on Teaching the Difficult Child – Help My Daughter is Twelve! – Reader Question
