Encouraging My Children

Yesterday I was web browsing and looking  at television and I came across the movie Courageous (its that movie from that church in GA, they also did Facing Giants and The Love Dare – the movie is about five men and the pledge they make to be better fathers and husbands).  The movie focused on the issue of single parent’s homes where the father’s are missing.  It made me think how much does not having a father affect children.  My parent’s has been married for 31 years, so I don’t know what’s its like to have an absent father.  My father has always been in my life and my siblings even tease me saying that I’m his favorite but he doesn’t have favorites we are all his favorites in our own special way.  Like I am his favorite cry baby – at least I used to be a cry baby. LOL.  I have memories of spending time with my father as far back as 3 years old and I don’t think I can imagine my life without him.  Even as a married woman with my own family I still don’t know how I would handle not having my father in my life.  I love him very much and I am so thankful for the amazing father and role model I have in him.

Having both my parents in my life always made me want to wait to have kids until I was married and although it didn’t go quite as planned, I am happily married to the father of my children, and he is one of the best fathers in this world.  When we talked about having children we always knew what we would try to do when we became parents and although some of those plans have changed we have done out best to be amazing parents to the three children we have been blessed with.  We both firmly believe in encouraging our children to do whatever they strive to do.  We reaffirm them to believe in themselves so they don’t have to look to others for validation and we tell them and show them we love them and each other so they know how love looks like and how its supposed to feel so when they are adults they know how to love and care for others.

When our daughter was born five years ago the very first time my husband held her in his arms he told her  – “You’re beautiful, you’re a Princess, you’re intelligent, you’re a leader, you can be anything you want to be in life, you are Kennedi Ottive Marie Stephens.  That affirmation has been repeated to her daily and when she was old enough to say it all on her own she started saying it every night.  We did the same with our first son and again with our youngest son.  I look at them and they are confident and sometimes they are so poised they surprise me.  Its fills my heart with joy when I hear my daughter say she wants to be an artist or my son say he wants to be an astronaut.  They are already on the path of greatness.  I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I couldn’t be the mom that I am if it wasn’t for my children’s father being in their lives and I am thankful that he is courageous enough to be a family man.

So here’s a big THANK YOU to all the courageous men that are fathers to their children and encouraging as well.