“Eighty percent of success is just showing up,” according to Woody Allen. In building trust with kids, that is absolutely true.
Trusting relationships start with us.
One of my mentors, Linda Sibley, shares her perspective.
“Attention to little things over the long haul is key,” she says. That includes things like sharing meals together, creating a stable schedule for co-parenting or establishing and maintaining family traditions.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
Yet when our own life journey hits emotionally and physically draining situations, these “little things” can feel overwhelming!
Fortunately, we don’t have to be perfect to establish a trusting home. Trust is built by our consistent efforts –especially when we are tired or stressed—over the long haul.
Trusting relationships start– but don’t end– with us.
Along with trusting safe people, a young child’s natural trust in God also needs to be nurtured and fed with great care. We must tread very gently so as not to damage this innate bond with God. We all began life with it. Many parents can relate with this quote, a blogged note in response to a London Times online article:
I am completely unreligious. It is so strange that my 4 year old believes in god and talks about it once in a while. I never taught that to him. Anyway, sounds interesting, it’s partly human nature.*
Some of us did not receive much childhood assistance to develop our trust in God.
But we can choose a different approach with the children in our lives. One note of caution: Avoid linking the basis of a child’s trust to answered prayers or obtaining favors from God.
Their trust in God can be damaged when we lead them to believe that their prayers to God always get answered in the affirmative (i.e. mom and dad get back together or a cousin escapes a car accident with no injuries).
Instead, watch for expressions of love in daily life and you will find God at work there.
*Quoted in Born Believers by Justin Barrett, page 176.
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