Parenting is not for the faint at heart. Just as it’s important in life to surround yourself with people who are like-minded and share similar values to help encourage you when you’re struggling with life in general, it’s important to surround yourself with like-minded friends (or family) who can help support you in your parenting journey.
Our kids have benefited from some amazing adults in their lives. God gets all the praise for connecting us with a community of believers and like-minded people who have taken the time to speak life into their lives.
God has even allowed us to meet strangers at the store who have spoken into our children when they needed it most. One such time sticks out very clearly to me. One of our children wasn’t able to go to fifth grade camp with the rest of the class. I was out running errands with that child and we struck up a conversation with a wonderful, sweet lady. She spoke truth into our child that day which I hope encouraged our child as much as it encouraged me.
We asked for words of encouragement/wisdom for our daughter at graduation, and the words that were written to her are priceless. I love that they are written down, too, so that she can reread them whenever she wants to, so they can continue to speak to her for years.
Do you have a community of like-minded friends who are willing to walk alongside you in your parenting journey?
Maybe you don’t have kids…are you willing to walk alongside someone else and speak life into their kids?
© Cheri Swalwell 2021