The BOX

The BOX

Think back for a minute. 

Way back.

Way back to your High School Days.

With our adult-glasses it is so much easier to see that BOX, the BOX we mentally built for ourselves. “I’m shy”.  I’m not athletic.  I talk too much.   I’m not smart.” 

Ok, stay in the past a bit longer.

Not only did we build our mental BOX, others in our grade helped build our box, too.  “Don’t put her on the team, she’s awful.  Oh, man, not him.  He dresses weird.” 

That ridiculous BOX, that suffocating BOX still haunts, doesn’t it?  We bought into it.  

Now return to the present and your nearly grown child

Apply those same feelings we just discussed to your nearly-grown child. 

Their BOX, their mental BOX is just as teflon as ours and also has a little social media sprinkled on top.  You have one emotional powder keg on your hands.  

There is so much we could cover, but I just want to encourage we parents to remind our kids that  . . . .

there are a few treasured times in their life when that BOX can be emptied and refilled.   

So when our teen's challenges of the day mount up:

• remind them of great accomplishments they’ve experienced
• write them a note and put it in a spot where they’ll encounter it in a quiet moment

But add this to your “tell your teen” list: 

Their BOX is emptied out completely each time they switch to a new school or graduate, or even complete a summer between grades.   Their life becomes an amazing new blank slate.  That blank slate allows us to capture the “new” and “improved”.  That box can be refilled.  

Those blank-slate moments are coming and much sooner than they think.

What an encouragement to know that these blank slate moments happen for our kids more frequently in those teen years, just when they need it most.   

Hope . . . that inner voice that says “just around the corner” when their world is telling them “no”. 

We can’t put a price on hope, thank goodness, or we could never afford it.  We just need to help our kids find and embrace it.

Have a GREAT week with your family and friends.  

And as we say ...

You CAN Have Success in the Middle of it ALL !