Parenting From Your Strengths, Part 1

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How a GPS Can Help You Be A Better Parent

First in a four-part series on parenting from your strengths

Rob’s face was red and Kate’s hands shook as they turned away from each other in frustration. When it came to parenting their two children, it seemed as if the couple was completely out of sync with each other.

Rob believed in stricter discipline; Kate used a gentler approach. Rob thought the kids’ homework should be completed immediately after school so the family could have time together at night. Kate wanted to give the children a break after school before they jumped right back into assignments. Chores, allowances, curfews – it seemed that Rob and Kate could not get on the same page about any of it.

Yet even more distressing was that both of their children had different personalities from the parents, creating even more conflict. Rob and Kate were depleted and exhausted. They didn’t know where to go or what to do next.

GPSWhat Rob and Kate needed was a navigation system that could help guide them through parenting. They didn’t know it yet, but they were about to learn some powerful tools that would help them get on the same map and follow it together.

A GPS for Parenting: Global Parenting System

Like many, Rob and Kate had experience with a GPS, or Global Positioning System, as they traveled in their cars. A GPS device uses satellite navigation technology to determine location. It’s an especially handy gadget to have on hand when you’re lost, need directions, or simply want to avoid getting off track. A flick of a button shows your location on a map and provides directions to your destination.

In other words, a GPS gives you a travel plan.

Interestingly, a GPS works in all weather conditions. Its key requirements are to have an unobstructed line of sight to associated satellites … and to be plugged in to a power source or charged with fresh batteries.

Just as a GPS is incredibly useful to use to help you stay on course as you travel, parents across the globe come to realize how much they need a parenting plan to help them stay on course with raising their children. That’s where a simple parenting GPS – Global Parenting System – is not only helpful, but can alter the way your family conducts its daily life and even strengthen your relationships to build a stronger family unit.

How Does a GPS Work?

While you see your personal GPS device as a single unit, in fact it is just one element of a three-part satellite navigation system. The segments work together to pinpoint your position and to tell you where to go next: the receiver (your GPS device, which sends out your signal), the satellites (which calculate your position), and the ground stations (which coordinate messages from satellites and individual devices, like yours).

Your device’s signal is sent up to the satellite. The satellite locates you through a complex series of latitudinal, longitudinal, altitudnal, and time parameters, and then sends the data back to earth. Ground stations process the information and send it to your device, which overlays the data on a map. Your GPS device triangulates your position by processing these three crucial pieces of information.

Presto! You find your location and get directions to your destination.

How a Global Parenting System Works

The Global Parenting System uses the same principle of triangulation. Three segments work together to give you reliable coordinates as you parent your children: God’s Word, your strengths as a parent, and your child’s unique, God-given strengths.

This special parenting plan offers a positive model to follow, one that is based on the truth of God’s Word and reliable data about each family member. Its objectivity builds confidence in parents. By following this GPS you can avoid predictable conflicts in your family and develop greater closeness together.

Over the next three articles in this series, you’ll walk with Rob and Kate as they learn about the three segments in the Global Parenting System and how to use each element to build strong connections in their family.

The plan’s keys to success, like your hand-held GPS device, are to keep its line of sight open (to the Word) and plugged in (to the Source.) That’s why right now, as Rob and Kate get started, they face just one simple question. It’s a question you can ask yourself, too:

Will you keep your line of sight open … and stay plugged into the Source?

Family Insights Profiles empower families to discover and use your God-given strengths, to value each others’ strengths, and to blend.

More on Parenting From Your Strengths

Parenting From Your Strengths, Part 2: How a Parent Finds “True North”

Parenting From Your Strengths, Part 3: Your Strengths – Will You Bury, Boast, or Build With Them?

Parenting From Your Strengths, Part 4: The Benefits of Knowing Your Child’s Bent