How can I wisely parent my highly emotional and sensitive child?

Yeah, it's really hard when you have a sensitive or emotional child. And sometimes, as a parent, it's easy for me to get caught up in the emotion with them. And there's a funny saying that you shouldn't try to teach a child to swim when they're drowning. And I think that way when I think of strong emotions. As parents, we want to correct their thinking or their logic in the midst of a meltdown or a highly emotional moment. Unfortunately, they're not thinking clearly. They're not acting clearly. And so, I think wisdom says, I need to get them to a calm place. I need to learn what they react to and help navigate the emotions in the room and calm the emotions down.

So, as a parent, there's a couple of things. One is that I just realize this is the kind of child the Lord's given me, their temperament, their strengths, their weaknesses, and often with strong emotions or strong sensitivity. There's both a strength and a weakness in it. And we're shepherding them. We're teaching them to steward that strength and weakness. It can feel exhausting as a parent. And I think one of the things that helps is when I say, "This is the child the Lord's given me. So how do I love them wisely and well? How do I show patience in the things that are exhausting? And how do I then be a mirror back to them to help them understand their own heart and their own reactions?" So it's twofold. It's me embracing who the Lord's given me in my life, and then it's me learning to navigate it well so that I am a help and an aid. And then it's also me reflecting back to them how their behaviors are and what it looks like to submit that to the Lord.