“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your
hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit
at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get
up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them
on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your
gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9
If Raising Home Run Kids was easy there would be a lot of
them and our culture would be on an upswing. That doesn’t seem to be the case.
As I mentioned Sunday, raising kids is a bit of a misnomer
because we our end game is to raise healthy adults. It takes healthy adults
with an intentional plan for raising up the next generation of healthy adults.
There are three virtues that need to be trained into Home Run
Kids. Yesterday I dealt with the first one, honesty. Today I comment on the
second one; thankfulness.
Darling adorable little newborns enter the world completely
and utterly self-centered. Growing larger and older does nothing to curb that
tendency. Selfishness must be disciplined out of the nature of each child.
There are a number of reasons selfishness must be confronted in a child.
Selfishness leads to ingratitude. Ungrateful people are
unhappy, unsatisfied and discontented people. That is not Home Run Kid
Material. That is home to third base runner material.
Selfishness leads to inconsiderate kids. When a kid is
primarily centered on his own interests, concerns and desires he has little
left for others. This is not Home Run Kid material.
Selfishness leads to impatient kids. Self-centered kids tend
to be self-indulgent kids who want what they want and they want it now. This
kid will never make it out of the dugout.
Selfishness leads to impulsive kids. Self-centered kids are
not into delayed gratification. They will fall prey to being manipulated into
make emotional decisions. That’s not a winning formula for life.
If you want to raise a Home Run Kid, teach him to be
thankful. The key to overcoming selfishness is to lead him to a personal relationship
with Christ. Becoming a Christian demands humility and repentance. One of the
certain signs of a true believer is gratitude. How else can you respond to the
amazing grace of God?
Those who would Raise Home Run Kids should also teach their
kid to say, “Thank you” to every kindness shown to them.
In addition to saying, “Thank you” Home Run Kids should be
taught to send “thank you” notes for every gift or kindness shown to them.
Home Run Kids are grateful kids, kids who have connected at
home plate and have rounded first base!
Coach ‘em up parents!
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