What Story Will Your Kids Tell?

I recently heard this statement and it’s stuck with me… “If you want to know the health of a society, look at its children.”

Every one of us as parents/adults has a story – a story about our childhood, our parents, and our family culture growing up. We’ve all got both some good and some bad, some ups and some downs.

If I were to ask you about these things, you could tell me. Why? Because these things have shaped you into the person you are today.

In a real sense, your past has led you to your present, and who you are today is heavily influenced by your specific story.

Is Crazy the new normal?…

The world around us is a crazy place right now, and it seems to only keep getting crazier by the day. Our children can’t help but notice this. Their lives are affected by it. Their childhood is being shaped by it.

And many parts of their story are being written with a pen that they do not hold.

But while our world seems to be on pause, our kids’ childhood isn’t. Their story is still being written one day at a time.

Our perspective of the world around us will shape theirs. Our fears or our faith will become theirs. And our story will inevitably bleed into their story for the rest of their lives.

10-20 years from now, what kind of story will our children tell?

No, not so much about Covid, or the crazy year of 2020, but about you, your home, and your family?

If the health of our entire society was based solely upon your children, would our country and our future be in good shape?

What story will your kids tell?…

• Will they talk about parents who loved them and loved each other?
• Will they be able to say that mom and dad’s church-life matched their home-life?
• Will their story include how they were given a godly and spiritual foundation to build their life upon?
• Will they look at your family’s faith as positive or negative Christianity?
• Will they tell of how you were patient and understanding, or harsh and unreasonable?
• Will they mention that you were kind, humble, consistent, and humorous… or distant, serious, and always had to be right?
• Will they remember being tucked in at night, told ‘I love you’ daily, and hugged regularly?
• Will they tell a different story in the areas of your story that you wish you could have changed growing up… or more of the same?
• Will they credit their passion for the things of God to you, or blame you for their lack of it?

These questions aren’t meant to be harsh, but they are meant to be thought-provokingly honest.

Parents, your kids’ story is being written RIGHT NOW – a story that they will tell for years and years to come.

No one holds the pen more often than you do.

You primarily hold the power to write the story that they will tell for the rest of their lives.

Pick up the pen. Write wisely.

Their health and the health of our society depend on it.

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh… Ecclesiastes 1:4

This article originally appeared here.