Focus on the Family Magazine - October/November 2022

RESILIENCE / KIDS & TEENS
A thousand steps
As children grow, their creativity may
be stifled by negative talk. Some start
believing they must succeed on the
first try. So fear keeps them from
exploring the abilities God gave them.
No one will like this idea. What if I
make a mistake? People will make fun
of me.
Creativity isn’t about perfection.
It’s about embracing risks and questions.
Creative people try and fail and
try again.
“Let your kids know it’s OK to make
mistakes,” Linda Kussman, mother of
three, says. “And be OK with letting
them make a mess. If you want creative
kids, you’ve got to live with a mess.
“And you’ve got to be creative yourself.
I see my kids following my
example,” she says. “I didn’t use a
bunch of special tools. I often just took
ordinary objects, like a shoe, and asked,
‘What is a different way we could use
this?’ The kids would let their imaginations
run wild—inventing games,
putting on shows, and doing all sorts of
silly things with that shoe.”
Whether you’re cooking, sewing,
acting, dancing, solving a math problem
or mapping out a new routine for
your family, every attempt at doing
something new is a step forward in the
creative process. As Thomas Edison
once said, “I didn’t fail a thousand
times. The light bulb was an invention
with a thousand steps.”
Embrace the truth
Help your child replace a negative
mindset with God’s point of view: I’m
fashioned in God’s image. Satisfaction
stems from working to the best of my
ability. God uses me when I surrender
my heart to Him.
“We do a Bible devotional as a family,”
Rachel says. “We pick out a reaffirming
verse and make it visible. I’ve written
verses on the bathroom mirror or
tables with a dry-erase marker. That’s
always fun. Sometimes we invent hand
signs to learn the verse.”
Scriptures on sticky notes posted
around the house also work well.
Your child can even help select the
Scriptures and decide where they
should be displayed.
When my daughter felt discouraged,
I wrote a dozen truths on sticky notes
and placed them in a circle around the
mirror. When she looked at the mirror
in the morning, her face was framed by
these affirmations:
God is continually at work within me.
“Now to him who is able to do far
more abundantly than all that we
ask or think, according to the power
at work within us, to him be glory.”
(Ephesians 3:20-21)
God will guide me just as He
guided His people.
“And the LORD will guide you
continually.”
(Isaiah 58:11)
What I create is for God.
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for
the Lord and not for men.”
(Colossians 3:23) >>>
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2022 FOCUS ON THE FAMILY 39