Most of us probably have younger siblings, or are involved with little kids somehow. And all those who do, have a power... it's called "Influence". The only question is; how we are influencing them? Are we influencing them in good ways, or the opposite?
I'll tell you a story: A while back we had a couple of kids from the neighborhood come over to our house. We were playing a game when I said the word stupid. After a little while, I heard one of the kids say stupid. Now, I'm pretty sure that he didn't know that word because he was very young. When he said it, it broke my heart. It felt so bad, that I taught him to say that! Afterwards I went over to him to ask for his forgiveness and I told him that it was not a good word to say.
But we can also influence them in good ways: One day we had a day with our home school group. But this was not a regular day. Because this was not a regular day... there was no child care. So in one of the big back rooms there was about 25 to 30 kids. No parents, no teens older than myself, nothing to do, nice. But even with that I made up at least five games to play, everybody was under control, everybody had a good time. Even me. And because I influenced them, they cooperated.
Our power of influence on younger children is very powerful. Use it wisely. Influence them in good ways.
~Kade
(Leave a comment if you can relate)
The Power of Our Influencce
Posted by
Kade
Friday, May 16, 2008
6 comments:
I can relate to this very well! Babysitting is pretty much my job, I do it a lot and I love doing it! Being around little kids so much has made me very aware of how we influence them by things we do and say!
They copy us, if we say something, they do, and if we do something they do it as well!
How challenging and encouraging this is! We are examples to them so we need to be careful with what we say but, we also have an opportunity to be a shining light of Jesus to them!
Thanks Kade, for this EXTREMLY helpful post!
-Becca
With a sister who is 21 months I can diffinatly relate. I got a video from a guy from church and it says, "I like turtles" and I say it often and whenever I take her to see my turtles, that is what she says.
-Nick
I can relate also! Way more than half of anyway words or "sayings" my siblings say are from me and a few others. I also feel bad when they copy something I shouldn't have said ):
Thank you so much for this post, I really needed it.
-cj
ok so i have this little cousin who follows me around and will do whatever i do and whatever i ask her to do (its really cute) but sometime my brother is a turkey and so we play fight...she doesnt see it as play fights and she starts fighting eith her brothers...yeah so then I have to tell why I shouldnt ahve foaght with my brother even if it was in play and then why she shouldnt fight with hers...yeah...
This is so true it happens to me all the time (for best or worst). That was so helpful
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