I have recently been watching some recordings of speeches by a person I hold in very high esteem – Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jnr. There is a depth to Dr King’s thinking and speaking that I find challenging. I had also been considering the foundations we need to provide our children in their school years and these thoughts were encouraged by a speech of Dr King’s that I watched.  He presented to a group of high school students at their graduation in October of 1967. He said, ” I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life’s blueprint?

Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.

Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.

I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life’s blueprint. Number one in your life’s blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that you’re nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.” (King, 1967)

As we parent and teach, how do we build our children’s sense of worth and identity? How do we  let them know that they count? How do we help them feel and know that their lives have ultimate significance? At the very beginning of a child’s learning journey at Prescott Primary Northern, our Foundation students do a group of lessons called “The King’s Kids.” I have wonderful memories of our little ones wearing a little crown around the school. When I asked one little guy what it was for, he told me that he was wearing it because he was a child of the king of the whole world. I think this is what Dr King was talking about in his speech. Helping our kids know they count, that they, and their lives are significant. I also think we can model this to our children when we use words like, “We are here for a reason,” and, “you can make a difference to those around you.”

The Bible says, Ephesians 2:10  “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Have a great week with your kids,

Mark B