Mrs. PIE

Speaking Life Into Our Children

• Shelley Jeffcoat • Season 4 • Episode 137

Share episode

We're starting a new series about raising kids with discipline and love, not perfection, focusing on speaking life and not labels into our children.

• Parenting is especially challenging during summer when schedules change and kids are home more
• "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit"
• Avoid using negative labels like "lazy" with your children
• Speak life by reminding kids of their value, talents, and the promises of God
• For adult children seeking jobs, offer support and connections instead of criticism
• Take time to listen to your children and what's happening in their lives
• Be self-aware of how you communicate with your kids
• Discipline through love rather than harsh words
• Extend kindness even to children outside your family who might need encouragement

Don't forget the prayer phone line is open today. It's free, and we'd love to hear from you.


Support the show

Come join us at our virtual events monthly. Visit our website to learn more.

Speaker 1:

no-transcript. Good morning y'all. And it's Thursday. Come out of the wilderness. If you hear that extra noise in the background, it's time for trash pick up in my neighborhood. So we are a real. We're a real family with real lives, and I'm so excited to be back here.

Speaker 1:

So we are in the month of June and we've started a new series and I think this was timely. I'm going to just read my show notes really quickly because I want to stay on track. Okay, so the way that I'm approaching this month of June, I started out in my show notes basically saying that parenting is hard and loving them through the mess is harder, and that this June we're going to get real about what it really means to raise our kids with discipline and love, not perfection. And I think this is also very timely for most of us, because this is when you know kids aren't in school right now. They're on summer break. Maybe you have a child that's I keep saying child and kids but some of our kids are adults. So maybe your child is in the adult phase, so they've just graduated from high school, they're preparing for college, or maybe your kids are, you know, they've graduated from college and they're looking for jobs or they've been looking for jobs for a while. They had to come home, and so our schedules change during the summer versus when they're not around. Right, we're stepping some of the families, we're stepping over each other and scheduling changes all the things. Also, what we want to think about are those families who a mom or dad or mom and dad have lost their jobs, lost their income and you're trying to work your way through. How do you provide for your kids this season? So there's a lot of things that's happening right now for real. So this is real talk.

Speaker 1:

Okay, for the month of June, we're going to talk about how we approach Good morning family and also if you're on the LinkedIn streets and you're wondering what's going on. So there has been something strange has been I'm not really, I don't push how do you say this? I don't like push, uh, christianity or um, you know my faith. I don't. I don't think I, I don't push it, I just live the life Right and uh, some of the things that I've been learning over this past, these past few months, is also not being afraid to show up. This is my why. This is part of um, how I show up, and so I've been growing on LinkedIn, so I just want to say a quick shout out to the couple hundred new people who showed up since I don't know a couple months ago.

Speaker 1:

So so, for those of y'all who are watching this and like what is going on, I still obviously talk about business and all of those things, but these, these Thursday morning teachings, are things that are going to be essentially it's a podcast, and these are going to help you too, all right. So, all that said, I want to pull up a scripture and I want to talk about this really quickly. We all know this one, and I'm also going to try to use, continue to use, scriptures that we're already familiar with, because we have a tendency to, you know, read these scriptures and just be like, yeah, I know what that is, but we have to be able to apply it right. We read it, but we have to apply it to our lives. We can't just say it, and I actually had something happen to me yesterday where it was another example of someone who I don't know if she knew what she was doing, but this person was literally speaking death into me, into something. It was crazy, but here we are, all right.

Speaker 1:

So the first week, this first week, we're talking about speaking life and not labels, and basically what we're trying to do this week y'all this is between us as parents. So this is, whether you're a mom, dad, grandma, auntie, uncle, or you have your aunt taking care of family, whatever If you're in any proximity to children, kids and adult kids that the thing we want to focus on is speaking life, not labels. Labels meaning that we're not going to get into the habit this month, especially when we're exhausted and frustrated and things are happening. Our schedules are changing, you can't find the money for camp and all the things. All right, kids are getting sick. We're not going to use labels. So you're not going to use the words like you're lazy you know what I'm saying? Like your teenager isn't getting up. We're not going to use labels. We're not going to put those labels on our kids. We're going to speak life over them.

Speaker 1:

The word says death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit. Now, some people love to be negative, nancy, and some people love to be positive, polly. Right that some people can't help themselves. They can't wait to say something about you and your kids and how you're raising your kids and all the things you should do. Hello, in-laws, be quiet, take a seat right now. Okay, for real.

Speaker 1:

And then you have people who, literally, they speak things to their kids not knowing that it's actually death what they're saying. So, for example, if you have an adult child right now who's going through a tough time looking for a job, it's not your responsibility. Come on, fam, it's not our job right now to remind them that, yeah, it's hard and you just need to look harder, because there are adults in the job market looking for jobs for a year, 18 months. So we have to be more supportive and speak life. How do you speak life into an adult child that's looking for a job right now? Well, if you don't know, then you need to refer them to a friend, maybe invite them to connect with someone that you know who might be good at working on LinkedIn. Or maybe you sit down with your kid and you show them how to do this, but you remind them that they have value and that they're talented and they're gifted and they're smart. You remind them of the promises of God. You remind them that they are blessed and that they're talented and they're gifted and they're smart. You remind them of the promises of God. You remind them that they are blessed and that they're not cursed. You remind them of who they are.

Speaker 1:

Some of you have kids who you know they wanted to be an artist and you might've been the one that spoke death to that thing and says you can't do it because nobody in the family has done it right. So we've got to be careful. No labels on your kids. Again, we're not going to pull out the negative stuff. Don't keep reminding your kids of what they're doing wrong. This month, let's remind our kids of the things that they are doing Right, right, let's lean in on that. The same way, like in business, when you're on the job or if you own a business, you don't want your clients and customers, you don't want your boss to keep telling you how terrible you are Right, you don't want to hear that. So our kids don't need to hear that. So we're going to speak life into them, the power of the tongue and it says, and those who love it because some of us who, again, we just love to hear ourselves talk.

Speaker 1:

This month, let's, let's, let's switch it up a little bit and enjoy listening to our kids, listen to what's happening in their lives, listening to what they're saying. You know, taking the time, you know again, including myself here we haven't, we haven't really sat down. You know, sat down and had a dinner, because I don't have that kind of time to cook. I'm not. I'm not doing that on Sunday, okay, but even bringing back some of the things that worked before. You know, family dinner if you need to, if your kids don't live with you, you can still FaceTime them and eat dinner together.

Speaker 1:

But the idea is that we need to do better at what we're saying and speaking life into our children. Okay, why? Because it yields certain fruits. The more that you speak life into your kids, right, the better fruits that they yield. And I don't mean like Pollyanna Polly, where you just say everything is all great. And you know, don't try to make up affirmations, don't make this complicated. We're going back to basics when it comes to how we deal with our kids and how we speak life into them. No labels, y'all. So don't overcomplicate it, don't you know? Don't you know? Don't look for the negative. Really think about what we are saying to our kids. Speak life, not labels. It's really very simple, it's not complicated at all, but I do think, especially because we have moved into the summer months and, like I said, our temperament has changed, our schedules have changed that we really need to think about how we are talking to our kids, right?

Speaker 1:

So this is it, y'all. This is what I had, very, very simple, good reminder. I hope this is going to help you as you're going out Now by the time this message is over and you've got to go and talk to your kid if you're running late. This is where you might need to be reminded that the life are in the power of the tongue. So don't chastise and don't. Maybe just for one day, you'll be a self-aware all of us self-aware of how we're speaking to our kids, and speaking through love, you can discipline through love and just I promise you you're going to see a positive reaction out of it from your kids. All of our kids need to hear this.

Speaker 1:

So I pray for every family, lord, under the sound of my voice, I pray for all of our children, whether they are young or they're teenagers or they're adult children, wherever they are right now that you'll bless them, I thank you for these amazing children, our nieces and nephews, and all that you've allowed these kids into our lives. We thank you that you're going to bless them, lord. We speak life over them. That every child that's connected to each and every one of us, they're blessed. That everything they stand in need of they will receive. That they are healed, lord God. That they will come to see your goodness today. That doors will open for them of opportunity for our adult children who are looking for jobs, even our teenage kids, kids, lord God, at camp. That you'll protect them and be with them, lord, I ask that you'll heal the kids that are sick, lord God, I especially ask for you to bless Lord God and find resources and help us give us the power to be the resources and the blessings for those kids who are homeless, kids who don't have a place to go this summer, kids who are lonely and abused, lord God, poor and needy. That you'll speak to the heart of every person under my voice. That they will also want to serve those children. That they'll work not just in their families but also extend to their communities and bless every kid they see.

Speaker 1:

Lord God, I ask that you will give us the blessings so that we can do this and carry out this work. So I thank you, lord, that we're going to keep speaking life, even into kids that we don't know. Just a smile from an adult can change a kid's life. So I ask, lord, God, that you'll speak to our hearts so that we'll be gentler in our discipline and that you'll forgive us for anything that we've done to hurt or harm our kids or any child that's attached to us. And all these things we ask. We thank you, lord, that you've given us favor in business and favor in every other area of our life. I thank you for all of the new folks who are joining the community or following on LinkedIn. That they'll be blessed in business, that all of the ideas and everything that they expect to gain and earn, lord, god, that you'll bless them and give them all the strategy they need. That you'll continue to build out this community far beyond Facebook, far beyond YouTube, far beyond social media, but you'll continue to use the three praying sisters, lord, to touch as many lives as we can. So all of these things we ask, lord.

Speaker 1:

We thank you for this amazing month of June. We are going to turn it up, lord, and we can do that with your help, amen. Going to turn it upward and we can do that with your help. Amen, y'all, that's what I have. Thanks for hanging around, quick, short and dirty, but it's still very powerful. Death and life are in the power of the tongue and we're going to speak that into our kids. No labels, y'all, just grace. All right, I love you, don't forget. The prayer phone line is today one and seven, and so y'all please dial in. It is open, it's free, and we'd love to hear from you. All right, be good to yourself. I will talk to y'all next week. Bye.