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Dr. Stacia Pierce affectionately known as "Dr. Stacia," holds a Doctorate in both Religious Studies and Philosophy of Ministry. Dr. Stacia is an inspirationalist, author and television personality who travels the world to speak at seminars, conference, and workshops. She is the author of eight books, and a vast library of materials including; leadership manuals, portfolios, mentorship programs, hundreds of audio cassettes and much more. Working alongside her husband Dr. James Pierce, Stacia is Co-pastor of Life Changers Christian Center in Lansing, Michigan with a current membership of over 3,500 members. Dr. Stacia is also founder of Women In the Word Ministries, where hundreds of women gather bi-weekly for bible study, and special events. Stacia’s television broadcast Successful Living with Stacia Pierce is available to women nationwide. Stacia, her husband Dr. James and their two children: Ryan and Ariana reside in East Lansing, Michigan. KFF: Good morning Dr. Stacia. DR. PIERCE: Good morning Anita, how are you today? KFF: I'm wonderful. It is so great to have you with us. Thank you for DR. PIERCE: Thank you. KFF: I want to start by discussing your book, "25 Ways Moms Can RaiseExtraordinary Kids." Now, I was given this book as a gift and I couldn't put it down. I think every mom should read it. It's filled with fun, practical, easy to implement ideas for any parent, and I thank you for writing it. DR. PIERCE: Well, I'm excited about the book because the book is actually the principles that I used to raise my kids. It contains the things that I learned through the word of God, and through just practical life issues that my kids were going through and I had to figure out solutions. When I got the solutions I said I wanted to share these solutions with everybody else because I'm sure they can use this help in raising their kids. KFF: The book is broken down into 3 sections, Learn, Love and Laugh. In the Learn section you discuss things like wake up your child's dream and create a talent portfolio; in the Love section you mention things like practice listening and promote a good body image, and lastly, in the section on Laugh you suggest things like enjoy activities with your DR. PIERCE: Well, the number one thing I want parents to take away from the book is that if you're going to raise extraordinary kids it's going to take time and input. I think that's the number one thing missing with parenting today— we're letting so many things raise our kids. We’re letting the TV raise our kids. We're letting the school raise our kids. Or even if our kids are in church, we're letting the church Sunday school raise our kids and we're not putting those things into them. We don’t have a learning environment at home or show them what real love is in the household—nor are we laughing at home together, creating good times and great memories in our households. So that's what I try to get across through the book to parents—that it's going to take some work on their part. KFF: Now, you're a pastor, a pastor's wife and a speaker, so you're privy to a lot of the challenges faced by many families and you mentioned time and input. What do you see as the primary challenge facing families and moms and dads today? DR. PIERCE: I think that parents now are trying to overcome raising their children in Christ in a Godly environment and they're faced at the same time with a lot of peer pressure. I think the peer pressure today is probably a lot tougher than maybe it has been in the past, because there's so much our kids can be exposed to. One thing I know that I try to get across to parents all the time is that they need to teach their children to have Christ standards—moral standards—and their kids need to know what they stand for. I know in our household we always tell our kids what we stand for, what we believe in, and what direction we want them to go. I think if that communication is not there, then the family is going to face some problems because kids are just going to start learning from school, their friends or from TV. They're going to start developing what they think is a moral standard. KFF: Now, in this book you offered 25 ways that Moms can raise extraordinary kids, and as I said earlier, they're all very practical and very easy to implement. Anyone can do it. That's what I appreciate so much about the book. But what do you think are the two or three most important things moms should focus on if they just have to start somewhere? DR. PIERCE: I would say the most important thing I always try to tell people is get your kids in a good environment. So I think the number one thing to focus on is to get your kids in church. A lot of times parents send their kids but they don't go with them. Make that something that you do as a family. So I think that's important. Number two, I think it's important that a parent find out what their child's bent is. What are your child's natural gifts? What do they naturally like to do? What do you see them doing at home? When my kids were young, my son may have been maybe three or four and my daughter was seven or eight and I discovered that my son loved to sketch and draw, and that kind of thing, all the time. He always wanted pencils and crayons. My daughter always wanted journals. Every time we'd go to a book store she would ask me mom, can I get a journal. So I recognized this has something to do with their natural bent. Let me supply them with the tools and the things they need to develop them in their purpose or what they really like. Now my daughter, she's very good in school because of her reading but she also writes books along with me—so she's writing a book now, Success Secrets For Teens. She wrote one last year, The Fabulous Life For Teens. And so by me nurturing that, giving her pens and journals and books for her to read, it put on the inside of her what she needed to develop her purpose. My son is always drawing these fabulous pictures and art work that we're always putting up around the house and doing these science experiments and that kind of thing, so those are some of the natural bents that were on the inside of them that I recognized, so I think that's the second one. It is it's important to recognize your child's natural bent. KFF: That's great. In 2005 we actually interviewed and featured your son Ryan as the "Author of the Month." Tell us a little about him. He's 8 years old now? DR. PIERCE: He just turned nine a few weeks back and he wrote his first book: If You Think You Can, You Can. If You Think You Can't, You Can't. It was based upon a real family story of him hearing at church a message about you can do it if you believe and if you think right. And he was just around the house watching his family and me exercising, watching my daughter try to play the flute, and he kept hearing us say, "I can't do this" or "I can't do one more push-up. I can't." And he kept telling us, "If you think you can't, you can't. If you think you can, you can." We have this little chart in his bedroom and it's a chart where he pins his thoughts on these little post cards at night and he takes the thoughts that he puts them into these little pockets. These pockets say "Thoughts About Mom," "Thoughts About Dad," "Thoughts About my Sister," "Thoughts About School," "Thoughts About Church," "Thoughts About Life," "Thoughts About Sports." So he puts these thoughts in there and he does it once every night or every other night and he put those thoughts in there about us what we thought we could or couldn't do, and he gathered all those little cards out and he had a whole big chunk of cards on his thoughts were "If You Think You Can, You Can; If You Think You Can't, You Can't." And he took those cards and said, "I want to write a book" and actually developed it into a book based upon our real life story. KFF: That's so wonderful. And what is his website? Because I've seen it and its great. DR. PIERCE: His website is www.Ryan0Brian.com. KFF: And we'll put a link there. And there are activities for kids as well? DR. PIERCE: There are so many activities and fun things to do on his site, and he has his upcoming book that will be coming out and T-shirts and all kinds of good fun stuff for children. KFF: Does your daughter have a website yet? DR. PIERCE: Yes, she does. Her website is www.Arianasplace.com. And actually her website just got redone, so this week it's actually brand new. KFF: Just look at what you're doing with your phenomenal kids. You're actually living out what you've written in this book. DR. PIERCE: We're trying. KFF: You mentioned how life is today and the reality is we're just so busy. Many of us don't think we have the time to raise extraordinary kids. A lot of us are just hoping for good kids and most of us work outside of the home and after picking up kids, cooking, preparing for the next day, how do we fit in time for the extraordinary? DR. PIERCE: I think you can make time for almost anything if you plan it. Sometimes I think that we say we don't have time because we don't get a concrete plan. And what I had to learn to do, because we're so busy as pastors and with our kids and writing books, is make a schedule. I make plans and I plan in family time and I just won't let anything interrupt it unless it's a major emergency. So I think with a plan you can fit more things in. If you don't plan it, oh, my goodness, you'll never be able to fit in the things you want to do or the things you enjoy or be able to create the memories that really matter with your family. I also think that having good friends is important. I know if you have good friends they'll help you with your children, help you with plans, and so I think that a lot of parents sometimes say they don't have the time or they'll want to spend time with one child and maybe not take them all, but if you have good friends, then maybe your friend will say, “Hey, bring the kids over here and you can spend the day with just your daughter or you and your son can do this together, or have time for yourself so you can pour back into your kids and they'll help them and watch them for you,” so I think good friends matter too. KFF: What suggestions do you have for moms who want and need to make a little time for themselves? DR. PIERCE: That kind of answers it. Enlist some good friends or family members that can help you and take some of the pressure off so that you can have time for yourself and you can have time to nurture yourself. You can have time to get away, because it's so important. If you don't have time to get away, then sometimes you can't put a whole lot even into your kids because you don't have time to get away and get filled yourself. As a matter of fact, I have a conference coming up and we used to let the parents bring their kids to the conference, and we just found out that the women would come to the conference with their children and they would be so frustrated or they'd miss sessions because they had to go back to the room and tend to their kids, so we just decided a couple years ago that there's no child care. You just find someone to watch your kids so you can get away for three days to get immersed in the word and have fun and enjoy yourself, and those kids will be okay. And when you come back you'll be a better mom. KFF: That's true. There may be a mom or dad reading or listening to this interview now who feel as though they're failing their kids, maybe they haven't done many of the things you recommend. What words or encouragement can you give to this mom or dad? DR. PIERCE: I would encourage them that you can always start over. It's never over. It hasn't ended. I would encourage them to not feel like a failure. The first thing they need to do is to change their thought process and attitude about it and just start from where they are. Start today and just begin to take some time apart to talk to their kids. Sometimes we do have to go to our kids and say we're sorry. If there are things you missed or haven't put into them or haven't taken time with them, sometimes kids can recognize that. So as a parent if you feel like you failed in some of those areas, just go to them and say, "I'm sorry, I haven't been everything I could be to you. From this day forward we're going to start afresh, start anew and I want to start a new relationship with you and start being the parent that I know I can be." And from that point on I would just start with one of the points in my book, one of the 25 ways, maybe getting them some books reading with them, helping them organize their rooms or getting a story board, helping them plan their future or figure out what their life purpose is. I would do something to create a bond between the child and just be on their way. KFF: That's so wonderful. Thank you so much. Where can we find your book? DR. PIERCE: You can find my book at www.ministry4women.com. That's the best way to find it and the quickest way you can get the book. Also the books can be found on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com, but I would say the number one way to get it would be right from my website. And plus there are other resources they can get off the ministry4women website. KFF: I encourage every mom and dad to get this book because the ideas are great for every parent. It's so practical and so helpful and a great reference to have. I'm so glad my friend gave it to me, and we can let the whole world know about it. DR. PIERCE: Thank you. KFF: Dr. Stacia, I thank you so much for your time and I wish you the very best in all your endeavors. DR. PIERCE: And you as well. Keeping Family First is awesome and you keep up the good work. KFF: Thank you. Copyright ©2006 by Keeping Family First.
Copyright ©2006 by Keeping Family First. |
