My husband and I live in a quiet established neighborhood. We enjoy walking a few miles daily. Our neighborhood adjoins another newer neighborhood. Since that area is newer, many of the homes do not have mature trees, rather, they are younger and newly planted. When the homeowner’s association plants a tree, they often tie two straps to the tree with one strap pulling the tree one way and the other strap pulling the opposite direction. Both straps are anchored to the ground. This method helps the tree stand upright rather than being blown over no matter which way the wind blows.
While we do not live in Chicago which is nicknamed The Windy City, there can be some strong winds in our area, sometimes reaching up to 60 miles per hour. The aforementioned tree-anchoring method really helps young trees stay upright and survive wind storms. We have seen trees uprooted due to lack of anchoring.
My mind thinks of “a million” things when I’m out walking. Okay, okay, even when I’m not walking. Sometimes it’s like having 25 tabs opened in the browser – haha! One day when I saw a young tree with the anchoring straps, it made me think of how children need “anchoring” so they can stand up to the storms of life. No, I do not advocate tying children down with straps (or tying them with anything for that matter)! I am referring to giving them proper guidance, training, boundaries, unconditional love, attention, loving discipline, and most importantly – faith in Jesus.
Several articles I have read, originating from university research and one of my college courses, indicated that a person’s brain isn’t fully developed until they reach their early to mid 20s. What I have read tells me that children need training and instruction at least until they are out of the house.
Along those lines, one simple game I made up to play with our guys when they were very young to teach analytical and decision-making skills involved using grocery ads that came in the mail. As part of creating the grocery list and enlisting their thoughts on what they would like for me to make for dinner for the week, we would open up the ads. I would start with some obvious contrasts in nutritional value by pointing to and asking, “Which is healthier, apples or soda?” We would discuss the reason why one was healthier than the other. Then I would point to two more items and ask the same question. Slowly, I would narrow the differences in nutritional value so their young minds would have to think harder to figure out which was better. There were comparisons where both items were healthy, but I wanted to get them thinking about the reasons. That is just one example. We also had discussions about characters in movies or books, and their actions and consequences.
One verse that I really took to heart when I was a young mom is found in Deuteronomy 11. The context is that God was instructing the people to obey His commandments and reinforcing the positive consequences of obedience. Deuteronomy 11:19 (NLT) states, “Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.” Speaking of when you are on the road, we also had some great conversations in the car doing errands, and on the way to practice when they played little league baseball.
No parent is perfect, including me. But, with strong faith and anchoring, kids are equipped to make good decisions spiritually, relationally, morally, etc. When the strong winds of life blow, big or small, not only can children stand strong, but they can continue to thrive when they are deeply rooted in the right things. Above all, PLM for your children. (Refer to one of my earlier blogposts about PLM.)
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