That moment when you should tell your kids how incredibly amazingly awesome they are EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

I read something yesterday and its been racing through my mind as I remembered seeing it once before in a book I was reading. It was a statement of, we as a "culture" are encouraging our kids too much for their own reality. We are setting them up for failure by telling them they are awesome. Ugh when I even write it, it makes me cringe.

At the end of baseball season this year Gabe was not chosen for the all star team in his age category. It was devastating to him.  We walked through the process of telling him the obvious. It was a little painful but nothing we couldn't work through and learn from. I couldn't tell you how many times we used the word awesome to describe how he performed on the baseball field through out the season. It was our definition of awesome. No comparison to anyone else and no opinion of anyone else. It never mattered. I am confused at how this could be confusing to him. Yes... The feeling of not being adequate, good enough, below average, defeat they were all there. Does that change his awesomeness? Not a bit! Unless he lets it. Unless he believes he's been defeated.. He's not good enough... The minute he lets it enter his soul is the only time it really matters. All other times he will forever have a mama and a daddy who thinks he's nothing less. What's even cooler than that?!? His awesomeness led to so many life lessons.

Willy sat Gabe down and explained to him that he was not among the top picks. But he asked him some important questions... 1. Do you love it? 2. Do you want to become better? His answers to both questions were YES! So thats what we did. If you see any of my boys (all 3).. You will see them wearing necklaces with the letters CBS . It's a symbol of their awesomeness! It stands for Come Back Stronger. On the back of Willys there is a verse engraved.  It hangs around his neck as a reminder of a season of weakness that brought so much strength.

2 Corinthians 12 9-10

9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We made sure to explain to Gabe That through this all... In his weaknesses. He is strong. He is good enough. And he is AWESOME! Not only do we think that..... but he was created in the likeness of God. Fearfully, Wonderfully, Awesomely made! I will not dispute or argue that.

Don't buy into the mindset "too much" encouragement. Everyone knows there is a reality. Our children will experience enough of it on their own. But I refuse to sit back and make a decision that I will not build them up because of fearing those who will perform at a higher level or judge their abilities will hurt their feelings. Perhaps it's the word.... say it ....AWESOME, that some people have a problem with. The praise. The confidence. The accolades. And yet don't all leaders portray those characteristics? Many of them going through life battling the same voices trying to resonate in their own souls "you are average". "You are not good enough". "You can't do that". "You're a failure".  Im not sure I have ever met a parent that would not want their child to be a leader yet we are holding back and keeping them from believing they can be.  

We ALL learned alot from this "season". On this side of it all I know without a doubt we are stronger. I know I have a little boy who still loves baseball. Who knows his mom and dad think he's the best ball player ever. To know he was created Awesomely in the image of God. Who is the giver of talent and the desire to work hard and can make him an amazing all star if he never even makes an all star team. So ask him one day if he's awesome.... He will say yes!!!! He may even pull at his collar and say it. Weak? Sometimes.. And he knows who gives him strength. 

I encourage you to take a moment. Some days they may need many moments. But tell your kids how wonderfully amazingly incredibly awesome they really are. And that you will forever think so.

PS...For my mother that will wonder if we ever tell Ben he is amazingly awesome here is his lunch from this morning. Dont worry....he is equally awesome, Mom.