As we all know, we're all highly influenced by the atmosphere that our parents create when we're growing up. And, if we do that the right way, that carries on to the next generation.
Alex KendrickWell, certainly, even separate from what our culture is going through, kids have different personalities and different natural bents and skill sets that they seem to come pre-programmed with. One of my two sons is very athletic. The other one is into social skills and humor.
Alex KendrickLove is hard to offend and quick to forgive. How easily do you get irritated and offended? Some people live by the motto, โNever pass up an opportunity to get upset with your spouse.โ When something goes wrong, they quickly take full advantage of it by expressing how hurt or frustrated they are. But this is the opposite reaction of love.
Alex KendrickAs our kids are drawn into, you know, Facebook and twittering and having their own cell phone and iPod and all those things , all of those things will take up as much time as you give them. What our goal is is to help them find that natural balance so that the things of our culture don't just steal their hearts and their minds and just consume their lives.
Alex KendrickWell, at the end of our movie Fireproof, we released a book that my brother Stephen and I wrote called The Love Dare. It was for couples. That book had a much larger impact than we expected. As a matter of fact, if I could use the term "overwhelmed," we were. The book went on to become a New York Times bestseller and sold over five-million copies and is now in 28 different countries and languages. So, we were blessed and just surprised at how well that did.
Alex KendrickSo, what I am learning to do is (to) learn each of their personalities - to study them, to learn how their natural bent is. Is it toward intellectualism. Is it toward athletics? Toward humor? Ministry? What makes each of them tick? And can I help them blossom in their areas of strength and win their hearts in doing so? So, that's one challenge in doing that.
Alex Kendrick