Support Uniqueness
So lets begin with S. S stands for support. We need to support others uniquely. Let me do a little side bar and talk to the parents and also would be parents. If you are at any type of parental stage listen very carefully to what I am going to say right now. God has given you the wonderful opportunity, and the responsibility, and one day the accountability of building an incredible self-esteem into the lives of those little ones He has entrusted you with.
Take our twins for example. Theyre seven years of age; both of them came from Lisa and I, yet both of them are utterly unique. One is more extroverted; the other is more introverted. One is more detailed; the other is more of a generalist. Ones a story-teller, kind of messy, the other one is very neat. Now you take two children like that and you try to support their uniqueness, try to build a self-esteem in them. It takes different words in different ways to communicate that feeling. Maybe for some kids you have to hug them a lot. You need to hug all kids a lot, but for some they might respond more to that. For others maybe you have to write it down. For others you say it. Maybe for some kids you just give them opportunity and they know as a parent youre giving them opportunity and they see that.
The Bible says in Proverbs that parents are to train up a child in the way the child should go. I like what Chuck Swindoll said years ago. Chuck said, Hey moms and dads, be careful. Your baby has the bent, we have a certain bent, all of us do, towards certain abilities, towards certain activities. Now thoughtless parents, selfish parents, try to take their children and mold them into what they want.
Maybe as a mom you have some unfulfilled things from back in your childhood or teenage years, so you take your daughter for example and you force her into those molds to do the things that you never did. Or dads, dads are classic at this, maybe you were the proverbial FAA, Frustrated All-American. Maybe you had a knee injury in the 9th grade and that kept you from the NFL.
Ed Young doubt that, but maybe you think that. And maybe you take your child and you force him into sports or whatever.
