You may remember speed skater Dan Jansen who took home the gold in the 1994 Winter Olympics and dedicated his victory to his sister who had died from leukemia. What you may not know is the single phrase that redirected the course of his life. When Dan was 12, he did not come in first place at a city skate meet. He pouted all the way home and his father didn’t say a word.
That night, before Dan went to sleep, his Dad came in and offered these wise words, “Life is more than skating in circles.” That one sentence changed Dan’s life and expanded his perspective so that he could persevere to Olympic gold.
The point is this–you may never know how powerfully your words will affect your children, positively or negatively. Like Dan’s dad, it’s okay to take a bit of time to think before you speak. What you say really does matter.
