I finished reading Shepherding a Child's Heart and Instructing a child's heart by Tedd Tripp which lead me to pick up this book, The Blessing by John Trent & Gary Smalley. When the same theme is presented over and over to me, I take that as the Lord's Sacred Echo and pursue that topic.
The concept of The Blessing is providing our children (could be spouse/friends as well) with genuine acceptance and love.
- 5 parts of the Blessing:
- Meaningful Touch: Kissing, hugging, laying on of hands
- A Spoken Message: Verbal, silence communicates confusion
- Attaching High Value on the One being Blessed: Honor, bless, respect
- Picturing a Special Future for the One being Blessed: Affirming the traits they have God will use in the future (ie. my oldest likes to/wants to cook, teach, organize, protect and work with animals = I share how all of those things are a part of my job as a mom and how God will use those as she is a mom/wife)
- An Active Commitment to Fulfill the Blessing: doing everything possible to help the one being blessed be successful
What I liked about the book is that each element is covered thoroughly. The real life stories hit you to the core. The authors discuss those who missed the blessing of their parents like many hurting people today have. The end of the book gives a list of 100 ways CHILDREN said their parents blessed them (oh so much simpler than we think). Also, scripture blessings are written out and are so powerful to pray over your children (check out Psalm 1).
I recommend the book and found it Biblically accurate. A lot of the material wasn't new to me but a great refresher. For me personally, I was reminded of the need to watch my tongue. It can be used to build up or tear down. To be intentional about speaking words of blessing to my kids and husband. All of us have (at least) one area of the five elements of the Blessing that we can work on. What's yours?
Go to theblessing.com to sign up for The Blessing Challenge.
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