Children express needs differently than adults. As adults we have refined skills, for better or worse, as to how to get our needs met. Most of those skills involve saying what we need in one way or another. Children just don't have the self-awareness that comes with maturity and they don't have the words to say what they feel and what they need. It is up to us to delve into their world and their heart and to interpret their needs in the way they are expressed. Often this expression comes in the form of behaviors. Over the past two weeks I have discussed two of the basic emotional needs children have (as so well presented by Dr. Bruce Narramore in his book, "
Help! I'm a Parent.") You can find those posts
here and
here. Now let's talk about the third of the four basic emotional needs a child has and what happens when that particular need is not met.
Worth ... Value ... Dignity
Deep inside each of us lives the innate cry to know we matter.
In Psalm 139 God shows us that He carefully created each one of us, personally, specifically:
For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.
