Parenteen.com received this request from a mom recently: "I wanted to check out internet sources on biblical sustenance that might help with self-esteem in my daughter (as well as myself), because I have certainly stunted my own maturity with negative self talk..."

One of if not the most important keys to helping kids to grow into healthy, thriving adults is the willingness of the adults who surround them to go after their own healing. This mother recognized her own pain while trying to help her daughter, yet she saw it as a side-note, a parenthesis, to the task at hand of being a mom.

The best gift a parent, or teacher, or youthworker, can give the kids they serve is the courage to pursue health and wholeness themselves. As we do, we will be more equipped to be there for those that need our free and full acceptance, tenderness and compassion.