My little mirror image looks right back at me when I look at my oldest daughter. From her brown eyes to her love of big words, she resembles me in too many ways to count. At the very lest least we are similar enough as to make us like the prickly side of Velcro rubbing up against each other.

So when she panics and lets loose a dramatic outburst, I’m not surprised. In fact, it takes everything in me not to respond in kind.

Usually I fail.

Last week we went for a three-mile hike in Mesa Verde. Steep cliffs, narrow ridges, and a hot sun could have been a recipe for disaster for all of us, but especially my sweet girl. You see, she doesn’t always think she is capable. Oh how I know that pain.

Sometimes it feels flat out easier to sit down and pout about it than to keep trying and fail.

But something happened up there on that mountain that surprised me. My fiercely passionate little girl didn’t turn her trial into tears. As she hiked right in front of me I could hear her little voice saying I can do this.

I am brave.

            I am strong.

            I am joyful.

Listen, call me crazy, but I believe in that moment she heard God whisper some truth to her about herself and she just repeated it.

God equips us in amazing ways, but those three things: brave, strong, and joyful, he has asked us all to be.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

 

“Be joyful always.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16

 

He didn’t tell us to be those things and then leave us to figure it out on our own. I think, like my daughter, God whispers to us that He has already made us those things.

We only need to trust in him.

Y’all God doesn’t have one single problem with us praying His own words right back to Him. In fact, I believe He delights in it!

Let’s be the voice in our kids’ head that reminds them who God made them to be. Let’s be the voice that speaks their identity in Christ to them.

You are brave enough.

            You are strong enough.

            You are joyful enough.

It might be that they need to be brave enough to cry, strong enough to let go, and joyful enough to find something to be thankful for in the middle of their tears.

It might be that they need to be brave enough to finish something hard, strong enough to trust in Him when the end doesn’t look good, and joyful enough to share Jesus with someone.

Those three things can manifest themselves in our children in as many unique ways as God made for them, but they have to know that God did indeed make them that way.

Join me today in speaking some life into our kids? In speaking their identity in Christ right to their precious face?

To Connect With Kaylie and Read More Of Her Posts.

I like to share about all the glory that God shows me over at my blog kayliehodges.com. I write about faith, family, and funnies. I love to listen to stories, and tell tales of the beauty from ashes that is adoption, and often motherhood in general. I am currently working on a book about sharing lives and sharing faith!

http://kayliehodges.com/2014/08/09/just-a-little-perspective/

http://kayliehodges.com/2014/11/14/when-your-theology-doesnt-match-your-reality/

http://kayliehodges.com/2014/03/21/travel-otherness-and-our-kids/

http://kayliehodges.com/2015/01/21/going-rouge/

http://kayliehodges.com/2012/04/26/keeping-it-real-mean-girls/

http://kayliehodges.com/2014/12/31/911-panic/