Due to the holidays and all, the past couple of weeks have been some question and answer times and sharing thoughts about different issues we encounter with our families. Last Sunday, November 28, we talked about teaching our kids HOW to do what we want. The meaning of some words to us as adults do not necessarily have the same meaning to our kids. We must realize what we say is not as impactful as what we do. The phrase "more is caught than is taught" is so applicable.
We can't forget that our kids do not have the experience that we do, and do not automatically associate meaning with words that we do from our adult experience. Someone being "lazy" may be horrid to us and seem to have no affect on the child - because they don't associate the horrors of laziness. Doesn't make it ok to be lazy - but how we communicate will change.
We went to Psalm 22:6 which speaks of training a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. While this has been a source of confusion, because sometimes parents do their best to train the children and the children still depart - there are a couple of things to keep in mind. One is that God is God and outside of our time. We struggle to see results of work today and what it means tomorrow - especially in our busy culture of high expectations. Sometimes things turn around more than we might think. The other that the original language can suggest that we train the child according to their 'bents'. Chuck Swindol devotes a great deal space and time to speak about this in some of his past work on the family. We know each child is different as each snowflake is different. That means we help our children bring their talents into training - we train them with God's word in connection with who they are. No cookie cutter answers - and not without a great deal of effort.
It's never to late to start doing what is right. Our God is a god of second chances! We lay the ground work for our children's priorities with our own priorities.
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