When you ask parents about their future hopes for their kids, you\u2019ll hear words like happy<\/i>, secure<\/i>, and self-confident.<\/i> Those are nice sentiments, but not guarantees. But what makes that kind of adult? A childhood filled with trophies and good grades? A life in the country, far away from the crime-ridden city? Enriching pastimes like travel and music? The truth is, not one of these things predicts later happiness. <\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t encourage children to study and excel; having parents who value knowledge makes a difference. The important qualities, however, aren\u2019t external, they\u2019re internal. Psychologist Dr Edward Hallowell says to feel secure, your children need to develop two crucial skills: <\/p>\n
(1) The ability to overcome adversity. <\/p>\n
(2) The capacity to sustain joy. <\/p>\n
He says, \u2018Life is full of disappointments. Only by failing the first time and learning to try, try, and try again will a person get the most out of their abilities.\u2019 But how do you teach your kids to be joyful in the face of adversity? There\u2019s only one way to do it: introduce them to the source of joy.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2005Isaiah said, \u2018My soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation.\u2019<\/i> (Isaiah 61:10 NIV)<\/p>\n
David said, \u2018In Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.\u2019<\/i> (Psalm 16:11 ESV)<\/p>\n
Jeremiah said, \u2018Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart.\u2019<\/i> (Jeremiah 15:16 NASB) <\/p>\n
God never promised us a life without problems, but His Word says, \u2018The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives\u2026 joy.\u2019<\/i> (Galatians 5:22 NLT)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you ask parents about their future hopes for their kids, you\u2019ll hear words like happy, secure, and self-confident. Those are nice sentiments, but not guarantees. But what makes that kind of adult? A childhood filled with trophies and good grades? A life in the country, far away from the crime-ridden city? Enriching pastimes like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ucbmedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}