Encourage & Rebuke In Love; Biblical Principles for Nurturing & Correcting our Kids

We had practiced hard and long. Joshua, 6, knew what three moves he would do for his gymnastics showcase. The day of the presentation he was confident, said he was ready, and then the excitement
began.

The older boys, more experienced, more advanced, went before his class. They did flips, forward and backward, and even multiple ones. They fascinated Josh and he wanted to be just like them, not in the future but on this day, his presentation day, so he decided to try his hand at their performance. He went to the mat, started in the right position and then the convulsions began. He looked like he was slam dancing with the floor and had really bad body ticks. After a few body slams, he ran off the mat. He was done. I was disappointed and soooooooooo embarrassed, but he was my child and I couldn’t let my embarrassment distance myself from him especially with the extreme comments  from two other parents.

One tried to tell me he did a great job while the other said with pity, “You have a busy boy there, don’t you? You must get really tired.” In that span of three minutes I learned the important balancing act of encouraging my children even when they do something humiliating or horrendous, whether age 6 or 36.

Consider the mother hen who takes her chicks under her wings. Being that close she can shield them
from external forces and comfort them in her bosom. Though being called a mother hen stereotypically gets us a bad rep as a nagging, overbearing mother, I want us to see that a mother hen does what is necessary for her chicks to fly on their own. Like the mother hen, we have to have our children close enough to shield and comfort them. When the time comes for the hard word when they mess up, our children have the memory of the shielding and comforting mom and can realize the encouragement even in the rebuke, if we handle them with care.

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