Sunday 12 January 2014

Teaching the Joy of Receiving Letters and Writing



 Pride


Luke 3:22
"and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
Source
This is the final installment in ‘Teaching the Joy of Receiving Letters & Writing – Writing to our children of how proud we are of them.
  1. October 18th, 2013 we explored guidelines in writing letters to children
  2. October 23, 2013 to write to children things that we have Notice about them
  3. November 4th, 2013 we explored letters that convey Gratitude 
  4. November 13, 2013 we looked at letters that say we Believe in our children
  5. November 30, 2013 we discussed writing about our Hopes for our children 
  6. December 16th, 2013 writing letter that describe how we Cherish them
  7. December 29th,2013 writing notes that express our enjoyment
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As a child I would have done almost anything to hear my parents say that they were proud of me.  And as a parent I know that too often my children experienced me as a critical parent and disapproving when, in fact, I was very proud of them.  Like my parents I used my voice to express my worries and fears while I remained silent in the face of my pride in my children. 
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As a grandparent I have a second chance to both express my pride in my children and grandchildren.  
Up until now we have explored writing to our grandchildren and in this installment I want to encourage all of us to also write to our children because we are never too old to hear that our parents are proud of us.
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A girlfriend shared this story with me recently.  At her grandchild's dedication a number of people came up to her and called her a "proud grandma." She later told her daughter that she wasn't feeling like a proud Grandma, but like a proud Mama! She is very proud of the adults that her children have become. 
Together we talked about how, now in our 50's, it is still important to us  to hear our mothers tell us they're are proud of us. 

Our pride should not be limited to what our children do that we like or to their successes.  Nelson Mandela puts it well in this quote:
“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” 
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When we write to our children and grandchildren let's include how proud we are of them for those difficult times when walking away would have be easier then stepping up or for the random acts of kindness that we become aware of.

Write a note to your child (or grandchild) today. The advantage of a written note expressing our pride is that those notes can be saved and pulled out and re-experienced over and over again, even after we are gone. 
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Grandma Snyder 
©2013 -2014 twosnydergirls

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