~Thoughts from My Garden (Part 2)~

My starter plants were growing heartily on our window sill.  I noticed there was one plant that was pushing up against the greenhouse cover and starting to bend over.  It was obvious that I was stunting the plants growth by not taking the lid off and giving it room to grow.  

Mom, are you stunting your child’s growth?  We can have so many rules and put so many constraints on our children that we keep them from growing.  Let them make some mistakes and learn from them.  Do not try to protect them from every harm that can come to them.  

When our children were little, we would take them to the “tree park”.  They loved to go there and climb trees!  This made me extremely nervous even though I too used to love to go to the park and climb trees when I was their age.  When I would “stunt” their fun with my worry, Todd would say, “Let them go, that is what white blood cells are for!”  Now, I am obviously NOT condoning reckless abandonment of your children, just relax and let them grow and learn.

Another way we can “stunt” the growth of our children is in the area of suffering consequences for choices they have made.  Not too long ago, my 16 year old son signed up for a very expensive craft fair.  He owns his own wood working business and so he takes his products to craft fairs to sell.  Most craft fairs have a fee that crafter's need to pay to participate, it’s usually around $25-$40.  This particular fair had a fee of $75, which is very expensive.  It took him 8 hours just to break even and recover his fee.  The craft fair was open 10 hours.  Shortly before it closed, I was tempted to buy one his more expensive items so that he wouldn’t feel bad for having signed up for such an expensive fair.  However, the Lord really spoke to me strongly NOT to do this!  It was important that my son “suffer” the consequences of his choice to sign up for an expensive fair.  If I bailed him out, he may make an even worse business decision later with much more severe consequences.  As it turned out, he was not disappointed in the least and looked at it as a great experience that he learned many lessons from.  

Being a parent takes great discernment.  We need to ask the Lord for wisdom, to know when to show grace and when to be firm, with the ultimate goal of helping our children to grow!

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”  (Jas 1:5)