Hello Mommies and Daddies. Thank you for reading with me today! As you know, I created happyhealthychildren.org to help parents throw off today’s toxic modern culture and get back to the basics of raising happy, healthy children. Today I want to talk with you about raising children with a spirit of courage.
2nd Timothy 1:7 says “for God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control”. In fact, there are over 300 Bible verses telling us not to be afraid.
Why is raising children with a spirit of courage so important?
Scientific research shows us that anxiety (which is defined as an unreasonable and pathological sense of fear and/or concern) has a particularly high correlation with suicidal ideation in adolescents. If we, as parents, want our children to be as emotionally healthy as possible, we must work to develop this emotional health within them.
What are ways for you, as a parent, to raise emotionally healthy children?
Firstly, realize that everything you do your child watches closely and models. So, you, as a parent, must model the correct spirit of courage and bravery for your child to learn.
Let us take a look at this study of children waiting to undergo surgery. In the study, children whose parents demonstrated high levels of anxiety prior to the children’s surgery were more likely to develop high levels of anxiety themselves.
Again we, as parental role models, must demonstrate to our children a spirit of courage and power. For just as they will model anxiety and fear after us, they will model courage and power as well.
Our children are being exposed to more fearful role-models than before.
Unfortunately, children today are dealing with significantly increased levels of fear and anxiety than they were only a few short years ago. Even pre-Covid, children were dealing with higher levels of anxiety and fear.
But, since the Covid-era, the mental health and well-being of children took a serious turn for the worse. In fact, according to the University of Minnesota, the incidence of children suffering from fear and anxiety doubled during the Covid era.
This means that it is more important than ever for us to support our children, to model for them the correct way to live and the correct way to think.
Being courageous is not always easy in today’s society. As George Orwell said, “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act”. However, like the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16:13 “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong”.
Concluding thoughts on Raising Children with a Spirit of Courage
Thank you for reading with me today. Please remember that we, as parents, must be courageous and brave in order to model these traits for our happy, healthy children.
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