We are so proud of our Gracie-girl, who finished her entire Sparks book last week at AWANA.

(If that sentence sounds foreign to you, I’m sorry! AWANA is a program for children that our church participates in every Wednesday. It focuses on Scripture memorization, and each student gets a book with verses to memorize. A book should typically take approximately one school year to complete.)

I obviously knew she was going to complete the book, since we work together on the memorization. But what I was most excited about was the review. I was expecting her to take the rest of the year to go back through the book and review the verses. Uhm, nope. She did ALL of the review verses the same night she finished the book!

That means she has really committed the verses to long-term memory. How exciting!

Confession time…(It sounds like a rabbit trail, but stick with me here.)

In elementary school, I was a chubby kid who wasn’t good at sports or anything in particular. I didn’t think all that much of myself, and I certainly didn’t have a healthy view of myself as a child of God. So, I thrived on accomplishments.

The one thing I did have going for me was that I was a good student.

As I grew older, I strove for good grades and was probably considered a “teacher’s pet.” (Okay, okay, I was actually voted “Teacher’s Pet” in our senior class mock elections.) I ended up being the valedictorian of my small public school class. You can imagine what wonders that did for my self-esteem.

But you can also imagine what happened to my rickety self-image when I got to college and wasn’t the smartest girl in the hall, and I couldn’t always get an A+ on every assignment. If I couldn’t even achieve perfect student status, what was I worth?

Obviously, I had to somehow form a healthy view of myself through Biblical truth – that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, made in the image of God, and I am His precious child (no matter how much I achieve, or don’t achieve). I truly can’t remember how that happened. It definitely wasn’t a one-time change, but a change of heart occurring over time. I’m pretty sure motherhood helped shape me tremendously.

Okay, now I am on a rabbit trail.

Anywho, here is my concern. Grace is so much like me. She is a great student. She gets SO excited when she does well in school.

And I’m sure all of that is pretty “normal.”

But how do I help shape her view of herself in a healthy, Biblical way? How do I help her know that her value is in her status as a daughter of God, not in her grades? What can I do to help her know that truth from a young age?

Anyone willing to weigh in here?