Six Ways to Keep the “Little” in Your Girl by

You are not alone. These four words are the most important ones we can say to our kids, from the first time they experience toddler separation anxiety until we move them into their first apartment.

There will be growing pains raising grateful kids upstream in a downstream world of entitlement. It will make our kids feel different. It will get harder before it gets easier. It will make them feel alone. It might make you doubt the course. It will probably cause fights and friction. Who’s ready to sign up?

One of the most impactful tools we’ve learned (when someone is upset or there’s an argument) is to ask the person we are disagreeing with, “What do you need from me right now?”

One of the joys of parenting is seeing the progress.

When we are specific in our thankfulness, we are more authentic. We take the time to appreciate what we’ve been given, and it makes a difference. It makes the people in our lives want to continue giving to us because we notice what they do.

It is important to love your children, but there is a fine line between healthy parental love and child worship. We know the latter has happened when we begin compromising God’s will for the sake of our children or their activities. . . . Compromise always points to idolatry. It displeases God. He does not like competitors, especially when they are

Being others-oriented is about as countercultural as it gets. Self-centeredness is so prevalent in our world that we don’t even recognize it anymore. We are a society of the entitled; we think we deserve whatever we have—and then some.[16]

6. A child-centered home inhibits awareness of others. When we focus all our time and attention on our own needs, it’s really hard to see the needs of other people.