Last week our church held Vacation Bible Camp. I had a blast co-leading the Games Station outside. It was tremendously fun being a child with the children. I think all the adult volunteers had fun playing those four days. We were pirates…aargh!
It was most fascinating to witness character growth among the children from one morning to the next. The first day everyone wants to be first, but by the second day children made effort to work as a team. They shared, encouraged, and helped each other. Across our small campus sweet character moments inspired all the leaders throughout the short week.
Character. Traits or qualities unique to us and influenced by the state of our heart. Our child experiences ours. We experience each child’s. That is, we experience each other’s current character.
Thankfully, our character is a work in progress, and the same is true for each of our children. Do you believe this? It’s true! God molds our character all our life. God is our Maker and Molder.
All sorts of settings influence our child and us and contribute to our development. The primary setting God desires to use to shape our child’s character is our home. Home is headquarters for love and learning, stretching and growing. It’s the child’s beginning place, his safe place to be himself, her place to return to after being somewhere that’s hard or confusing, and it’s the place that he knows that no-matter-what he is loved.
It’s hard to be mom and provide that setting every day. We need God. We need his love. We need him to mold our character. We need him to teach us how to participate with him as he molds our child’s character.
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