Guest Blogger: Melanie Nichols
This March, we are sharing a special series of blog posts from Melanie Nichols. This series was originally posted in February 2021. You can find Melanie and her blog here. If you would like to submit to our blog, please email us.
Showing grace as a parent or teacher means accepting the kids in our lives where they are. It means treating them with kindness even when we feel it is undeserved. Grace and forgiveness are closely tied together, but do not mean that we overlook errors or allow kids to “get away” with misbehavior. To put a slight twist on the acronym used by Cornerstones of Care’s BIST program (link below), GRACE can be remembered as Giving Responsibility and Accountability to Children Everyday.
As loving parents and teachers we show grace to our kids by accepting them, their problems, and their needs. From that place of acceptance we can begin teaching them how to take responsibility for their actions and be accountable for their mistakes. Extending grace and giving forgiveness to our kids also helps them learn how to forgive others and models a healthy way to handle conflict in relationships. Focus on the Family (link below) expands on these benefits and shares a few others.
As the same article from Focus on the Family says, responding to kids with grace “starts with intentionally prioritizing our relationships in each situation” and requires us to “look beyond the wrongdoings and remember that we all need grace at times; if we are to receive it, we must also give it.”
Cornerstones of Care’s BIST Program
Focus on the Family – Parenting with Grace
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