WORDS OF PRAISE

3. Praising Achievements
Our aim should be to commend our children more often than we criticize them. But what if our children do not seem to excel in any arena? They are not athletic, they struggle with school work, and they have neither musical nor dramatic gifts. In this case our words of praise will be even more important as our child is unlikely to be hearing them elsewhere. That does not mean using false flattery. That will make our children trust our words less. We must be honest in our praise.

We need to look for those achievements that no one else will notice. For younger children this might mean congratulating them for dressing themselves.

We can encourage them as we watch them forming the letters of their name, even if they are several months behind their peers. We can congratulate them for brushing their teeth or tidying their bedroom, even if we have just asked them to do it.

To an older child, we might say, “Well done! You are really persisting with your Math” even if the rest of their school work leaves a lot to be desired. “Thank you for not slamming the door when you left this morning”, “you were a real help at lunch today”, “thank you so much for staying and chatting to Grandpa – he really enjoyed it” and many more such praises can be used. These attempts at encouragement may at first sound contrived or insincere to our ears but as we practice praising our children, they will become more and more natural and spontaneous.

Q. Let us honestly introspect to see if we have taken praising our children for granted. Are we quick to criticize or use sarcasm to our children instead of praise?

Let us remember that praise goes a long way in building confidence and self-worth in our children. So, let us be their first cheerleaders.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, help us to role model you to our children in praising them honestly. In Jesus’ name, amen.