I've been waiting for it since we had our 1st child and she began to talk. Waiting to see what my little mocking-bird was picking up from us. 'Us' being those she hangs out with most often: parents, grandparents, friends and teachers at church, cousins. It's interesting...if you really want to see what your child see's, just listen.
Those little sponges have what I like to call "mirror syndrome".
Children's personality will be a different as snowflakes even within the same family. I knew this was the case and prepared myself for our second child, Izzie to be opposite of our 1st child, Maggie. Sure enough- night and day. Yet, I was some how still shocked at how my 3rd child could be so different from BOTH Maggie and Izzie. I knew their could be 2 different personalities, ya know, "She's just like her father." "She's just like her mother." When Jamin came and he didn't seem to lean more toward either of the personalities of his big sisters I was nothing less than amazed at God's handy work. Children are born with unique personalities but a lot of who they will turn out to be depends on those who raise them. This is why it's so important to guard who the spend the majority of their time with. Yep, the old nature vs nurture. ScArY...
Just to clarify- we are ALL born sinners. Yep, there are no innate good kids we like to call angels. Sadly, when you gaze down at that adorable sleeping infant in your arms is an innate bad kid with a dark evil heart. They are just months {if not less} away from performing their very 1st, undeniable, visible to anyone, guilt-ridden SIN.
As parents, God's given us the task of training our children, starting with their hearts. Most people in general have an ideal model of behavior they'd like others to display. Even among the pagan world, there are ethics. Every behavior is rooted in a belief. Children may have innate personalities but belief systems are formed by those who are raising them {ie: those they are around the majority of the waking hours}. They are forming foundational beliefs in every situation, and I do mean EVERY situation not just the sit them down and teach them something specific. They are actually observers. Children learn to do things {eat, smile, roll over, cry, crawl, laugh, walk} before they learn the words for them so it will come as no surprise that children learn more about beliefs through actions they see than words they are told.
For the Christian home, our ideal model needs to be biblical. If it's not in the Bible then maybe it's not worth the fight or stress {ie: what color clothes to wear} but the black and white in the Bible are obviously well worth the fight/stress. "Pick your battles" by using scripture as your battle plan.
Read The Battle of "the F word" HERE.
originally part of a post published Feb 25, 2012
