I love teachable moments, not just for my children but for me as well.
The other day my son made a few bad decisions and received the consequence of not being able to play with his friends. This is a big deal to my social butterfly and the worst punishment that he can imagine.
In our home we practice under the principle that you must control yourself or someone else will. The fact is in life there are severe consequences that come from not following the rules and if I don't teach my children to abide by them then I have let them down.
A friend called and asked us to join them for a play date but because of my son's consequence I was prepared to decline the offer. You see, I am working very hard to be consistent with giving discipline, I have learned that my little ones learn very quickly to make better decisions and not repeat their mistakes when there is a real consequence.
But on this day I realized that I had an opportunity to teach another lesson, one that I believed would have a greater value.
I told my son of our invitation to play and then reminded him of his consequence, he went from excited to disappointed very quickly when he heard my words. Then, I asked him if he thought he deserved to go and he reluctantly said, "no, I guess not."
When I told him that I was going to let him go anyway even though he didn't really deserve to go, he began to smile at me carefully not really knowing what to say.
Then I asked him, "Do you know what it is called when you get something even though you don't really deserve it?"
He looked at me with a confused expression, shook his head and said, "No."
"It's called Grace.", I said.
Just like the kind that God gives to us just because He loves us..."
And my sweet little boy said..."Even though we didn't do anything to deserve it!"
We are never to young OR to old to be reminded of the grace that is freely offered to us by our loving Father!!
The other day my son made a few bad decisions and received the consequence of not being able to play with his friends. This is a big deal to my social butterfly and the worst punishment that he can imagine.
In our home we practice under the principle that you must control yourself or someone else will. The fact is in life there are severe consequences that come from not following the rules and if I don't teach my children to abide by them then I have let them down.
A friend called and asked us to join them for a play date but because of my son's consequence I was prepared to decline the offer. You see, I am working very hard to be consistent with giving discipline, I have learned that my little ones learn very quickly to make better decisions and not repeat their mistakes when there is a real consequence.
But on this day I realized that I had an opportunity to teach another lesson, one that I believed would have a greater value.
I told my son of our invitation to play and then reminded him of his consequence, he went from excited to disappointed very quickly when he heard my words. Then, I asked him if he thought he deserved to go and he reluctantly said, "no, I guess not."
When I told him that I was going to let him go anyway even though he didn't really deserve to go, he began to smile at me carefully not really knowing what to say.
Then I asked him, "Do you know what it is called when you get something even though you don't really deserve it?"
He looked at me with a confused expression, shook his head and said, "No."
"It's called Grace.", I said.
Just like the kind that God gives to us just because He loves us..."
And my sweet little boy said..."Even though we didn't do anything to deserve it!"
We are never to young OR to old to be reminded of the grace that is freely offered to us by our loving Father!!
Ephesians 2:8
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
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