Never stop believing in yourself

That is such a powerful message!

I just spent the last hour or so watching the videos from my good friend Etan G the Jewish Rapper. On his website he has the episodes of a show called NOW – No Opportunity Wasted, a Discovery Channel show. NOW is about ordinary people with a dream who ask the program to help them make it come true. My friend Etan had the dream to make a music video and have it viewed by a major rap artist while his mother sat there with them. The 4 episodes are about the making of the video; all the while his incredible wife was in labor with their first child. Take a look at the videos of you have some time. They are really worth it. If nothing else, watch the final music video. It’s really inspiring– at least I think so. And I love the music, most especially the words!

“Never stop believing in yourself” are the words of the song.

How do we get our children to believe in themselves?
Do we REALLY believe in OURselves?
As parents how do we model belief in ourselves?

I want my children to believe in themselves.

I won’t be able to be there for them for everything. They will have to speak out for themselves, ask for what they want. Go for what they want. Mommy won’t be able to always be there. I don’t think I’m supposed to.

But even with all the love in the world, a child can still not feel good about him/herself. Is it personality? One child can be more outgoing and have more self-confidence than the other?
Why is that?

Nature vs. Nurture

My friend Etan believes in himself. He always has. (Sometimes too much!) But it has gotten him where he is now. Is it about the money and the fame? Is it about whom he knows? For Etan, I know a large part of it is about reaching out to those kids who feel the way he did as a kid:

Those who felt they didn’t fit in.

We can be different, but still fit in.

We need a world of more tolerance. We need a world of more acceptances.

We need a world of less judgment of one another.

I need a world where I believe in myself and what I have to give to it.

Thank you, my friend, Etan.

You have shown my children and I that we can believe in ourselves.

And more importantly, we can believe that G-d believes in us!

Love you man!

P.S. I’m not your baby! Smile :)