This post is part of a series of 31 Day to Cultivating Heart Connections with Your Child as part of the 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes Challenge.
How evident is gentleness in your life? How about in your tone of voice?
Ouch….
That question stings me a little.
Was my gentleness evident to my baby when he awoke at 2:30 a.m. and thought it was time to play?
Was my gentleness evident to my toddler when he took his sweet time getting his shoes on to get out the door?
Was my gentleness evident to my preschooler when he ignored me and kept on playing?
Was my gentleness evident to my precious girl when she asked the thousandth question at bedtime?
“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.” Philippians 4:5
Our tone of voice speaks loud and clear to our children—either telling them we are a safe welcome and that we delight in them or that they had best tip-toe around us so they don’t trip the trigger on harsh words or that maybe it would be best if they made themselves scarce for a while.
When we seek to cultivate heart connections with our children, we have no room for harshness and anger. Harshness will yield only distance. Instead, we must extend grace and let the fruit of gentleness be evident in the words we say, the facial expressions we all, and the actions we take. Grace and gentleness even while rebuking will yield connectedness.
When our gentleness is evident in even our voice tone, no matter the mistakes and mess-ups our children may have made, we are cultivating heart connections with them.
Gentle voice tones cultivate heart connections.
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