Flip it - Twist it & Do a U-Turn

Unless you live under a rock or wrap them in bubble wrap your children are going to encounter many kinds of character types and personalities through the lives of other individuals as they grow. We live in a corrupt and semi twisted society and being as such your sweet little seedling is going to face other people who hurt and deceive their tender little hearts and may even crush and or challenge their walks as maturing young Christians.  Like it or not your precious young one is going to be influenced by such things as teasing, lying, jealousy, bulling, controlling, deceiving, conniving, manipulating, and bad attitudes in general.

So, how do we raise our children to be in the world but not of it as they witness and experience these kinds of character flaws and instruct them to be radically different then what they witness? 

We need to take every opportunity to train our children to flip it, twist it, and do a u-turn with circumstances and situations that happens in their lives.

Now, what do I mean by that?

I’m so glad you asked.

I searched my heart thinking of a way to verbally explain to you what it is that I am thinking and the only way that I can really think of explaining it is to just give you a personal example of how I taught myself to flip it, twist it and do a u-turn.

My father was an abusive man and he found entertainment in allowing me to bond with animals (I’m an animal’s lover so that wasn’t hard for me) kittens usually to be exact. I never knew when it would happen, but on occasion while I was at school and he was at home he would torture and ultimately kill my animals. When I returned home he would spend about an hour carefully explaining to me how he slowly killed each one in dark torturous ways and he ever so gently described for me how they suffered as they died.  I made a decision that that was not the kind of person that I was going to be. I made a decision to mentally watch, examine and observe his behavior as a person not just as my father and in doing that although I felt great pain emotionally I was able to rise from the ashes mentally as I decreed that I was going to learn to do things differently than he had done. To this day, I think with compassion, first, in all things in my life. And, I accredit that to my father. He in a sense taught me deep overflowing depths of compassion because he had none. Mentally, even as a child... I taught myself to flip what he had done in my mind and I made a promise to myself to always think with compassion, first. I twisted the actions of torture that I witnessed and to this day when I see suffering I step in and do something to physically alleviate the suffering. I made a decision when I became a parent that as for me and my family we were going to do a u-turn and serve the Lord. In a sense… Flip it, twist it, and do a u-turn.

I encourage you to train your children to look at experiences in retrospect as they enter into their own life lessons in life. Teach them to carefully observe people and their behaviors as you would watch animals in their cages at a zoo. Children so tenderly take everything personally and it is our responsibility as parents to carefully instruct them to learn from the bad behaviors they see in others and live out the opposite that they witness as we encourage them to be radically different.

When you notice a difference in your children’s behavior take the time to talk with them to find out what is going on in their lives and understand that hurt people hurt people. Your child’s recent behavior detour just may be emotional overload. I encourage you to closely guide and instruct them through your own experiences as you share your personal stories and adventures of how you learned to personally flip it, twist it and do a u-turn in your own life.

Teach your children to take the darkness that splatters on their personal life canvases and train them to splash brilliant colors of compassion, kindness and gentleness as they dare to be different in creating their unique life masterpiece.

Tina Marie Eisenhart, is the mother of 5 beautiful kiddos ages 20, 17, 15, 13 & 2. She has worked with various aged children and youth most of her life but has been a dedicated home school mama and children’s ministry teacher/team leader for the last 18 years. Education and encouraging others are her most dynamic passions. She is an author and self proclaimed word nerd as writing is also one of her passions.