Godly Gals – Real Women, Real Life, Real Faith: Power of a Parent’s Words by Kate Battistelli

The Power of a Parent’s Words
By: Kate Battistelli

Has God shown you the treasure in the lump of clay that is your child? He’s faithful to and as He does, He’ll show you how to fight to bring it forth and shape it into a life He can use. It takes blood, sweat and tears to see your child walking fully in the purposes of God but, as one who is on the other side, I guarantee you it’s worth every drop of blood, sweaty brow and countless tear.

No job on earth compares to preparing the next generation. Our responsibility is huge, hard and glorious. God gives us wet cement; our job? Make an imprint that will last a lifetime.

“Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Could anything be further from the truth? Words have incredible power in fact, Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat it’s fruit.” I firmly believe the spoken word is the creative word and what we say has a huge impact on the future.

Did you notice in Genesis how God created the world? With a word. “God said…..and there was…” When Francesca was little we tried an experiment. Here’s an excerpt from my book, Growing Great Kids:

“We’d lost a key in the front yard and we honestly couldn’t find it. We searched everywhere to no avail. Franny really wanted to help us so we told her, “Go ahead and look. You are a really good finder.” Well, she helped us look for awhile and wouldn’t you know it, she found the key! She was so excited and we were thrilled! Anytime anything got lost, we reinforced what a good finder she was and more often than not, she would find the lost item. In this small way, we set her up in a pattern of belief about herself and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

What this little experiment taught us is this: Children believe everything you say about them. Mom and Dad are the authority in their little lives and our words form the bedrock of how they think of themselves. Positive and uplifting words lay a firm foundation but harsh and critical words can damage their destiny and guarantee a toxic future.

If you are a single parent struggling to make ends meet, here’s a little tip from me to you: Words are FREE! They don’t cost a thing but imagine that each word, each time of encouraging, uplifting, believing in who God created your precious little one to be you are building a firm foundation of belief that they can change the world! As you speak words of life, you are speaking destiny and purpose into their spirits.

So, call out the good gifts and traits you see in them. Speak life and purpose over them. Remind them they were created for a purpose and God has a unique destiny for them. Remind them that they are world-changers and if you do that consistently, they will be!

Kate Battistelli is a wife, speaker, author, former Broadway actress, and mom to one of Christian Music’s most celebrated artists–Grammy-nominated, Christian Contemporary singer-songwriter Francesca Battistelli. Kate volunteers at Esther Single Mother’s Outreach and writes about faith, family and food at www.KateBattistelli.com. She is thoroughly enjoying her new role as grandmother to Francesca’s first child, Matthew Elijah.

Kate’s new book, Growing Great Kids ~ Partner with God to cultivate His purpose in your child’s life is available here. I’ll be doing a review of this book next week.

~~~~~~~~~~~
I love it! Thanks so much Kate for sharing your sweet words of wisdom with us today! What a precious reminder of the importance of our words to our kids. Our charge as parents is to build them up and prepare this next generation for His glory…good stuff!

PS – Just gotta throw in there that I absolutely adore your daughter’s music and am constantly blessed by Christ working through them! Good job mom! 🙂

Sweet friends…each and everyone of you has a story to share. You–are Real Women, Real Life, Real Faith in action and I’d love to hear your story.

What are you waiting for?

Send me an email to melsworldministry {at} gmail {dot} com and let’s talk about sharing your story here for the Godly Gals series too!

post signature