Hi, friends! I hope y’all are having a great week. We are halfway there and the weekend is in sight.

Today, I wanted to share something that is near and dear to my heart. It’s something that I write about often and share every chance I get because it truly changed our lives.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine shared on social media how they do affirmations with their kids every day. I asked her about it and she shared some of the affirmations that they repeat. She talked about how it had made such a difference in her kids’ lives. I also had another friend that shared on a podcast that they do affirmations with their kids every night.

It’s like God was trying to tell me that I needed to do this.

During that time, I began to notice that my kids were struggling with self-confidence. One of our kiddos was going through some hard things and my heart hurt for them. There’s nothing like watching your child struggle emotionally. It makes you feel so helpless because you are fighting with all the noise around them. Especially as they get older. There’s so much fighting for their attention.

I’ve learned that as a parent we can’t keep troubles away . Just as we struggle and go through hard things, they are going to do the same. And although there may be situations where I feel like I can’t do anything to help them , I’ve learned that I can pray. And that’s one of the most powerful things that I can do.

Because of my friend and the podcast, I learned that not only can I pray for them…I can also speak life over them. And I can teach them to speak it over themselves, too.

My friend sent me some examples of affirmations that she found on the internet. I started with those and then added specific affirmations for each of my children based on their current struggle.

For example, we had one of our kiddos that was dealing with the loss of some friendships and was feeling lonely. This kid also struggled with being happy for others. So we would make this child repeat, “I am a good friend. I am happy for others.”

Another one of our kids struggled with being afraid and anxious so we added to their list, “I am not anxious. I am not afraid. I can do hard things.”

And one of the Eterno kiddos struggles with being slow to anger. So their affirmations included, “I am slow to anger. I think before I speak.”

Here are some that we began to say every single night:

I am strong. I am not afraid. I am not anxious. I am healthy. I can do hard things. I am a good brother/sister. I am a good friend. I loved God. I am a child of God. I am brave. I am smart. I am focused. I am a good student. I love my mom and dad. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. God loves me. I am a conqueror in Christ. I am happy for others. I work hard. I am a good team player. I am slow to speak and slow to anger. I am God’s masterpiece.

And we always, always ended with, “I am an Eterno.”

When we first started, I realized how low their self-confidence was. They felt weird saying these statements to describe themselves. And honestly the first nights were hard because they thought it was silly and they didn’t want to do it.

One of our kids struggled and almost refused to say “I am happy for others.” They had so much bitterness and hate in their heart over this and God used this statement to breakthrough in their life.

I underestimated the power of speaking life over ourselves and our children and the Lord used these affirmations to work powerfully in all of our lives.

When Joseph and I would go out of town, they would call us individually and ask us to please say their affirmations with them. We would say them and they would repeat them.

I won’t forget when Jojo came home one day telling us about being afraid and nervous while he waited to find out if he made the sports team. He told us all he kept saying to himself was, “I am not afraid. I am not anxious.”

When Mary tried out for the cheerleading team, she told us that she kept repeating, “I can do hard things.”

And Mackenzie has told us that when she wants to get mad she repeats, “ I am slow to speak. I am slow to anger.”

It makes my momma heart happy and proud and thankful that my friend shared this with me.

God moved in the lives of my children through the power of our words and I will never stop thanking Him and telling others about it.

Proverbs 18:21 says,

“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Our words have power. And as parents, Joseph and I realized that our words towards our children were not life-giving. We weren’t building our kids up and that had to change.

We began to change our words even when disciplining our kids.

When they get in trouble we reiterate that that is not who they are. If they lied, we tell them “that is not who you are. You are not a liar. You just made a bad choice. You are a good kid.”

It’s truly amazing to watch your kids grow in confidence before your very eyes.

Here are a couple of examples that I found on Pinterest.

And y’all, don’t just do this with your children. Do it with yourself. Speak life over your life. Quit telling yourself that you are dumb and can never do anything right. 1 Peter 2:9 says,

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

You are His special possession. I love that. Believe it for yourself and speak it over your children.

I hope this helps! If you want to know more, send me an email or message. I’m always happy to share.

I hope y’all have a wonderful Wednesday, friends!

XO