Spotting Greatness In Your Child

Gathered at the dining table, our family often looked for the best in one another by noticing greatness. Each person had a turn to be the center of attention.

“The greatness I see in you,” I said to my youngest, “is that you have good ideas.”

“Yes, I do,” she responded. Receiving compliments became easier with practice.

“The greatness I see in you,” her older brother said, “is that you are opinionated.”

She grinned. “Yes, I am.” When each person had named a greatness about her, she stated a positive characteristic about herself. “I’m a good piano player,” she listed.

“Yes, you are,” we agreed.

The game continued to the next person, including guests, until we recognized the best in each of us. Sometimes we gave a Scripture verse along with naming a greatness.

“You are like the tree in Psalm 1, planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever you do prospers.”

When a situation or person in your life is troublesome, mine for a positive gem.

List the positives in a journal, along with answered prayer and the characteristics of God— which are all good— to refer to when you wonder if God really sees you.

Press into the Lord, particularly during the tough patches, to see what he is teaching you within this setting about his vast love that surpasses knowledge.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith— that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:14–19 ESV)

How to Have a Relationship with God