What You and Your Kids Need to Know About True Confidence

“Yeah, Mom. Everyone knows that,” my six-year-old recently informed me, complete with facepalm.

When it comes to his knowledge of the world, my son is supremely confident.
When it comes to just about everything else . . . he’s not.

After a year of Covid-19 and social isolation, it’s tough for my son to walk into a group of kids he doesn’t know.
It’s difficult for him to tackle another descriptive sentence or believe he can really pick up a room full of scattered LEGOs.
It’s a challenge for him to trust that he doesn’t need to take justice into his own hands when his four-year-old brother breaks the rules.

I look at my pint-sized kid and wish I could instantaneously transfer forty-plus years of hard-won (though certainly not perfected) confidence straight into his heart and mind.

Can anyone out there relate?

Like all of you, I want my child to walk into every situation with the confidence that he has what it takes.
I want him to stand up to bullies and sit down when he’s tempted to lose his temper.
I want him to know he is deeply loved in a way that no failure can ever change.

But even as his parent, confidence is not mine to give.
In fact, true confidence is learning to see yourself the way God sees you.

I wish I could give my kid the confidence to do the things I know he can do. But I can’t perform a confidence transplant—it’s not in my power to do. However, it is my job to provide my son with the blueprints to build his own confidence, brick by brick. (Thanks to LEGO we already know kids can handle multi-step directions!)

If you’re a parent like me who wants to make sure their kids end up being far more confident than we were at their age, there’s a book I think could help us all. Press Play—A Kid’s Devotional to Build Confidence that Lasts, written by Carlos Whittaker, breaks down confidence into brick-sized pieces starting with, if you will, the “base plate” of God’s deep and unconditional love for us.

Day by day, Carlos leads kids on a journey of building true confidence that goes way beyond bravado or being a know-it-all. The book shows . . .

You can be confident because God loves you.
God’s plan is the best plan.
God can use you no matter what.
God can do the impossible.
God is always with you.
God has given you what you need to stand strong.
God loves you no matter what.

My six-year-old needs another year or two for his independent reading to level up before I can hand him this book. But you can bet I’ll be taking every opportunity to introduce these principles now and help him “press play” on building true confidence.