Give Your Kids the Gift of Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Strength

Give your kids the gift of mental, emotional and spiritual strength. Resiliency helps them bounce back and hope propels them forward. Both qualities are necessary to be strong mentally and emotionally.

We strengthen their mental processing when we:

Wait. Give your kiddos opportunities to step into the unknown. Avoid taking the reigns and solving all their concerns.
Provide time for problem solving. Let them wrestle with the “How to” for a bit.
Increase their flexible thinking skills. Challenge them to think outside the box. Get creative with how to solve a problem.
Show them how to break tasks down into smaller pieces to lessen frustration.
Work on puzzles together.
Give them responsibilities around the home.
Provide opportunities for mental and physical rest, no screen time.

We strengthen their emotional capacity when we:

1. Allow them to win at a game. while we model how to graciously lose.
2. Let them experience losing at a game. Give them a chance to practice losing graciously.
3. Celebrate their successes.
4. Encourage them to try again in their failures. Let them know this is the best place to learn.
5. Let them express sorrow over rejection (not being invited somewhere). Briefly share a time you were rejected. Then work together to
create a plan to distract from the hurt.
6. Discuss big picture perspective, but DO NOT do this in the middle of the hurt (that is dismissive). Train them to see things from
another perspective in the good moments.
7. Train them to identify and express their emotions in a godly way. Teach them anger identifies a problem but it does not solve the
problem. Logical thinking solves an issues.

The Ultimate strength: HOPE Spiritual Strength:

We strengthen our kids hope when we:
1. Teach our kids how to pray. And when they are praying, show them how to bring their concerns to God.
2. Show them how to be a warrior rather than a worrier.
3. Model how to trust God when things don’t work out the way we want them too.
4. Let them know this world is hard sometimes and God is good all the time.

Jesus gives it to us straight in John 16:33, ” In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Our kids need to bounce back and bounce forward with resiliency and hope if we want them to be strong mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

If you would like additional help and practical ideas to strengthen your child’s resiliency and hope click here and pick up Messy Hope: Help Your Child Overcome Anxiety, Depression, or Suicidal Ideation. This book is filled with techniques to strengthen your child’s mental, emotional, and spiritual countenance.