Evotional.com - Mark Batterson

I read something that really impacted me today. A research study at the University of Iowa found that the average two-year-old receives 432 negatively oriented statements a day compared to 32 positively oriented statements. That's a 14-to-1 ratio. That really challenged me as a parent. When I was in graduate school I developed what I called "the positive paradigm." I discovered that every negative could be converted into a positive. In other words, I think there is a positive way of doing everything! I think that is what Jesus did with the Great Commandment. He took hundreds of "thou shalt not" commandments and turned them into two "thou shalt" commandments. He gave us two positive directives: love God and love people. That's it. So I'm trying to think of ways I can avoid that 14-to-1 ration and be more positive with my parenting.