The power of perspective

I had an experience yesterday with my son I wanted to share with you. Jackson created a Lego movie and entered it into his school art contest for film. He won 1st in his school, and then 1st again at regionals for his division. Last night was the awards ceremony for the state competition. He was very excited and was expecting to get a trophy even though we had discussed that he might not win, and that's ok. He had fun making the movie and he already did so well. Well, last night his name was called and he got an "Honorable Mention" certificate. He was very sad that be didn't win a trophy. This is where the art of perspective comes in. I kept a smile on my face and told him how proud of him I was. I continued on to explain that he won 3rd place out of the whole state and that is amazing! His division is 3-5 grade so he is in the youngest group. To go so far against older kids and on his first movie ever was incredible! Then we talked about what kind of movie he wanted to make next.

The point is, everything is in how you say it. If I had said "oh you got 3rd place. Good job. You can try again next year" he would have been devastated. But because I said "Wow! You got 3rd place! That's amazing!", he was proud of himself and told everyone he saw that he got 3rd place.

In my Primary Angels DVD, there is an example where I'm giving out reinforcements to kids. In that scene, I ran out of candy treats and only had gold fish left. All the kids saw what kinds of treats I had and who got what. So when I only had goldfish left, I had to "sell" it. I got excited and said "guess what you earned today?! You earned goldfish! Good job!".

Remember that the kids respond to your attitude about things. If your excited, they will be. If your neutral, they will follow your lead.

Keep up a positive attitude and good luck in your callings!