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Three Ways to Capture Your Child’s HeartShelley NoonanChildren today, even homeschooled children, are bombarded with experiences that can give them the wrong impression of what love is and pulls them away from close relationships with their parents. Activities, sports, busy schedules, and lack of time all can work to tug your child’s affections away from you and their relationship with God. What exactly does it mean to capture your child's heart? To capture something means to catch, attract, take or to win by skill. Just as the act of capturing your spouse’s heart is an on going ever changing, always-progressing process so is the securing of our child's heart. Amazingly, it is not just a one time event, date, or special present that woo’s your child, but this miraculous occurrence can be a by-product of simple everyday activities. 1. Work Together – My dear German Grandmother had a saying, “Many hands make the load light.” That has been my motto as I was training my kids. Working together in your home will not only make more time for fun, it also serves as a training time for your children! I loved taking my kids with me on as many of my daily errands as possible. Whether it was grocery shopping, bank business, post office, going to the dry cleaners, or even dropping off things at Good Will. My kids would be with me and actually enjoy the special time that I got to spend with them. The moments we got to spend together were priceless…and they didn’t even realize we were “working”! 2. Eat Together- Food takes second place to conversation at our home. We love nothing better than a family meal where we sail through the first bite of food to the very last crumb of dessert with rollicking, challenging, non-stop, fast paced debate and conversation. Whew! I don’t know when my kids got so opinionated but I love it! I totally relish hearing about their passion, their interests, and stories around the comfort and familiarity of the dinner table. 3. Have Fun Together- I have a dear friend who is probably the most unlikely hunter in the world. Let me explain. Sandy is the epitome of femininity. Tall and willowy, Sandy looks as if she could barely be strong enough to hold a 22-caliber rifle. And yet as she was looking for a way to remain connected with her son, she remembered that one of his passions was hunting pheasant. Sandy, became a hunter for her son. She told me later she had a blast (pardon the pun) with her son as they tromped through the snow-covered fields and attempted to flush out pheasants. Sandy connected with her son doing what he liked to do and in the process captured his heart. My perspective is that in ordinary everyday life, extraordinary things happen. Like having such a great relationship with your child that they allow you to capture their heart. I have recently noticed that there seems to be pressure on parents to create events, dates, spa experiences, in order to grow their relationships with their child. While I agree that these occasional experiences are great but they aren't what it's all about. I don't know about you, but I would not be a very happy wife if I just relied on dates, vacations, and outings to gage my relationship with Bob upon. It's in the everyday moments that I continue to learn who he is and learn that he is safe enough to allow the holding of my heart for safe keeping. Today, I encourage you to also take time to pursue your child’s heart and allow them to know that their heart is safe in your hands. 2006 Pumpkin Seed Press, LLC Back to Articles Page |
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