Children need encouragement

We recently went to Arkansas for a week for a visit with Janna's sister & family who were in from Virginia. Part of our trip included a camping outing to Roaring River State Park in Missouri. The kids loved swimming in the pool. The pool has this concrete slab that sticks up in the middle where a fountain used to be. The boys were playing Kid of the Mountain with 3 other boys. Josh got hurt. He jammed his thumb. As I was looking at it, I made mention that we adults were watching him and the other boys play & we were impressed at his tenacity. He kept trying even though there was no way he was going to bring down the two older boys that were 14 & 16 years old. (I didn't mention that last part to him.) He teared up. I asked him if something was wrong. He said, "It's just that I'm happy that you were pulling for me."

It reminded me that we need to encourage our children. We live in a hostile world with people pulling at us from all sides. Our children are growing up facing issues we never faced, at least not in the overt nature that seems to persist today. I've been guilty way too often of being hard on my children for small things. The Lord has taught me to let the little things go & when big things happen, handle them with grace. I don't always do that, but I've come a long way.