“Speak to your children as if they are the wisest, kindest, most beautiful and perfect humans on earth, for what they believe is what they will become.
It's been said that children are sponges from birth. The truth is, they are sponges from the moment of conception. Everything the mother feels, the baby feels. What she hears, the child hears.
We all know this, yet do we know this? The Hebrew language has a fabulous word that encapsulates this knowing- yada. It's a deep inner knowing, like a God knowledge of something. In this case- we know, we yada that children are sponges and absorb everything from the moment of conception.
When one has yada knowledge, they would have had a deep and intimate experience with the truth and if there was an error in the experience, they would quickly course correct.
i.e. if I have this type of knowing about how much it hurts to fall backwards on my snowboard before it happened, I would have taken more precautions and likely would have avoided a nausea induced afternoon.
Or not. I was 20...
It's a knowing, one that causes someone to course correct or have bulldog intensity and never let go.
Such is the case in speaking life over children- any children. Yours, mine, the neighbors. Any child.
When we speak anything but life, hope and healing over a child we are participating in destroying the next generation. When we truly know this, when we yada this, we would never in the history of ever speak anything but life.
I know. The words pierced my soul as I typed them, it's how I know these are God's words, not mine. I wish I could take back every ugly word I spoke about a neighbor child, some mean child in our co-op group, or even the one who spit in my daughter's face when she was 5. Certainly I could use a little time invested on emotional release for that incident.
Each slam and slanderous word spewed out into an ever expanding universe and found the soul I spoke it over. Every careless and useless word did not fall to the ground. Words spoken over and about another living soul never does.
Even calling a child a kid is a form of unkind speech. You know what a kid is, right? A baby goat. And parents wonder why their children may run around like wild animals in their homes. The term kid has a cold and calloused feel to it, unlike child. My child, vs my kid have a certain feel and weight to it, a weight of love and familiarity. In addition, the bible never uses the word kid, but child.
On that note, the Word never mentions the word teenager either. Have you noticed? And yet when we say or hear the word teenager, what imagine springs to mind?
Go ahead, be honest. In my mind I think of a person with shiny clothes, shiny phone, pounds of makeup and a frappucino in their hand. Can we all agree this is a milkshake and not in fact, a coffee beverage?
See, the word teenager never gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. Not only is it not in the Word of God, but it is also not found in other cultures. Cultures that demand honor and respect. Rebellion and strife are not only not tolerated in other cultures, they are not even expected to occur.
Stepping into the younger age range, take the term toddler or preschooler- these give way to thinking of the phrases terrible twos and treacherous threes. Obviously these are sharp and ugly words to speak yet how many mothers and grandmothers over the decades have coined this over a child. Rather, one would think wisdom says we speak what we desire to see in our children- call things into being as that are not as though they are, that sort of thing.
Know that children will grow into whatever it is we speak over them. When we begin with the end in mind, we carve out their future with out words. Not simply words like 'you're smart or you're beautiful'. These are lovely words that do of course, build up. Yet as adults we have the power to influence them in more ways than just brains and beauty. We have this amazing opportunity to call out futures such as "You are a born leader. You are a man/woman of great integrity. Creativity flows from you. Your body is whole, your mind is clear."
Saying those words aloud, even the process of typing them out causes my soul to come alive. Doesn't it cause you to want to go find the nearest child and speak this over them?
When we have the end in mind, we speak from it. We fight from it. We declare a vibrant future over each and every child we meet.
If you take issues with the next generation of adults, remember- you may have had a hand in how they behave. And yet, you certainly the power to change it. All it takes in one person calling that which isn't as though it is.