As I have mentioned before I have 3 little kids and they keep be busy. So every now and then we end up taking a drive through the nearest Drive-Thru Starbucks. During this particular trip to get my usual Upside-down Cameral Macchiato, we saw a friend of ours who working the drive-thru. After getting my much needed coffee and a quick hello we were off to our next stop. But before we could get to our next destination the kids started to ask a few questions about the friend we just saw. Addison asked, “Who does he live with?” I answered with the names of the guys he lives with. Then came the question “Why doesn’t he live with a girl?” So I started to explain to her and Lucas who was now involved in the conversation, that he wasn’t married and girls can’t live with boys and boys can’t live with girls until they are married. Then of course came the next set of questions concerning marriage. I then let them know that boys only marry girls and girls only marry boys. So then Lucas comes back with “I’ll marry Addison.” I then had to talk about how we can’t marry family, but friends are ok. Out of what I thought was a simple stop at Starbucks I ended up talking to my kids about marriage and moving in with people when they got older. Do I think they will remember this conversation when they get older and start to make these kinds of decisions, probably not, but it doesn’t hurt to start talking about what is right in God’s eyes in this fallen world.
Another situation came up last week, which became a good teaching moment as well. We were seating at the dinner table and my son asked if he could have a piece of candy for dessert? I told Luc that he would have eat all his dinner first and then we would see. Then Addison of course asked if she could have a piece if she ate all her dinner? I told her no, because she was going to her Awana group at church and Lucas was going to have to stay home with dad. She then tried to tell me that it wasn’t fair for her not to get a piece. My husband and I then talked about how she gets special treats like Cubbies & Swim lessons and since Lucas is not old enough he gets other special treats. Not everyone gets the same thing and that is ok, because everyone is different.
So with all this being said, I am learning to take every chance I get to teach my kids good morals, life isn’t fair and what God says is ok and not ok. I know they are young, but believe me they get it. They understand so much and I would rather start now and use precious moments like these it instill good solid truths into my children, so that as they get older they know what is right and wrong, not just in my eyes, but also the eyes of their Heavenly Father.
I know sometimes as parents we get bombarded with questions and we get tired of answering them. It is just easier for us to say “let’s talk about that later” or “not right now” or “can you just please be quiet and go play?” But I believe that no matter how tired we get we need to be ready to answer our children’s questions. When kids ask questions then they are probably ready to hear the answer or solution to a problem and it may always not be at a convenient time for us, but they are ready and open to hear. We need to make sure we allow them to ask us questions even if they are silly questions, because that lets our children know that we have time for them. I also think this is really valuable later in life when the BIG questions come up, because if we didn’t take the time to answer little questions the little questions now, do you really think they will come to us with the BIG questions later?
God gives us so many chances and ways to teach our children strong biblical truths, take every opportunity He gives you and you will be so glad you did!!!
Proverbs 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when is old he will not turn from it.
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