My annual 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes. I am a day behind, but October snuck up on me this year so I’ll just start right where I am – on October 2.
Today I spent a large majority of our afternoon walk telling my eldest about how being kind to people, especially his siblings, is the mark of a true man. He’s not a man yet, but I have to train him up to be one of those one day, and I so want him to be a good one.
As I was talking with him, I remembered, thankfully, that I am his truth-teller right now. The words I say each day form a part of who he sees himself as. The thoughts that I voice about him become woven into his future adult self.
Stopping the flow of words that portray him in a negative light, I began to tell him what I know about him – that he is kind, gentle, generous, loving. All those things that I want him to be, that I know he is, that I have seen in his life.
He may not always have someone saying those things to him – calling out the God-given good that is within him. Everyday, he will be besieged with words that tell him differently – that tell him he is never good enough, that he needs to take all he can get, that he is not loved.
I pray that he will not believe what the world says about him. I hope that instead he will rely on the reserve of truth about who God says he is, and who I know he is, that I have poured into his heart. It will tell him the truth.