How to Have Faith in Your Child

Often times, parents are too quick to point out what their child is doing wrong. Too many parents are overly critical of their kids. All this does is kill the child's self-esteem. It leads them to perform worse in school, in sports, in relationships etc. Everyone needs confidence to be able to succeed in life. Here are some tips on how to help your child to be more confident by having faith in them.


Steps

Always believe the best about your child. This goes for any relationship in life; we should always believe the best about people rather than expect the worst. Have hope that your child will succeed. Always be positive in regards to your child.
Know that you create your own self fulfilling prophesies about your kid. Whatever you believe about your child, they WILL become. If you believe that your child is a little angel, then they will probably most of the time be a little angle. If you believe they are a little spawn from hell....well....their behavior won't be as good. :(

Speak life into your child. The Bible says "life and death are in the power of the tongue." We can either bring death to our life, or life. :) The way to speak life into your child is to encourage them. To encourage means to give people courage. Tell them that they can do anything they set their mind to. Tell them they are special. Tell them they are talented. Believe that they can be all that they were meant to be, and they will be. :)

Don't be overly critical of everything they do. Have patience with them. Remember that they are small, and they are not capable of nearly as much as you are. If you are too harsh with them, they will only hate you. Maybe they won't when they are little, but watch out for the teenage years. We reap what we sow, and if you sow criticism and anger, you will reap criticism and anger.

Show interest in their life. Show interest in what they are doing, in their hobbies, in their friends. You may be able to keep them out of a lot of trouble if you would just communicate with them about their life more often. They won't care what you know, until they know that you care. So show that you care, and then they will be more open to you giving them advice. :)

Remember that any kindness you show to your child now, will be given back to you when you are older. Often times parents who just throw their kids in child care, later in life, get thrown in an old folks home by those kids. However you want them to treat you when you are old, treat them that way now when they are young.

Disregard any negative report from others about your child. Don't let people gossip to you about them. Always stick up for your child. Their teachers may have critical things to say about them. Ignore them. The doctor might. Ignore it. Don't listen to anyone that might say they have ADD or ADHD. Those labels really just mean that a child is not encouraged enough to learn. You as the parent need to make them interested in learning. It is your job as the parent to mold them into a model and respectable citizen of society. Don't medicate them to fix a problem that you could fix just by being there for them more.

Go to their sports games. Cheer them on. Encourage them in every extra curricular activity that they do. Don't neglect them. Don't ignore them. If they mess up, tell them they will do better next time. Focus on the positives, what they did right in a game or on an essay etc. rather than pointing out all the things they need to improve on.
Thank God everyday for the beautiful child that you have. Realize that there are many couples who are unable to have kids due to infertility issues. Thank God for the things that they are good at and for how healthy they are. Have faith that they have a bright future and that God has amazing plans ahead for them! Amen. :)

Ask relatives and friends to encourage your child as much as possible. Get relatives to come to their games also or concerts etc. Ask them to tell your child what a good job they did etc.


Tips
Remember that no matter how angry you get with your child, don't flip out on them. It will only cause them to not respect you and not trust you. It can also traumatize them and scar them for life. They might grow up fearing anger more than they should and so might have a hard time expressing anger in a healthy, balanced way.
Play board games with your kids. This is a great way to bond as a family.

Tell them every day, "God has something for you to do that nobody else can do."

Encourage them to have dreams for their life and help them to believe in those dreams.

Hug them often and smile at them. Don't come off as an old grumpy person.

Try to be consistent with them so they know what to expect.

Spank your child, but in moderation. Only do it in extreme circumstances.


Warnings
Here are some general warnings about raising kids:
Don't be too gullible when it comes to your children or think that they are perfectly fine. They might be doing a lot more than you realize. Like getting into trouble.

Monitor their computers and put blocks on certain websites. You can buy software to do this.

Be careful of whose houses you let them go to and make sure the parents are good.

This is somewhat comical, but put an alarm on their window so they can't sneak out at night.

Take your kids on a tour of your local federal prison and ask the guys to tell them stories of what not to do and how hard their life is.

Help them learn early on that there are consequences for their actions.

Don't force them to go to church, because when they are older, they will never want to go. They will just resent having to do something they don't want to do.

Encourage them to eat healthy so that they will live long and prosper. :)