We like to teach with stories and lots of questions. They love to answer questions in turn.
We had a good few minutes of great teaching and questions about prayer.
Then, something sad happened. Little Mister was goofing off and was sent to bed early. He cried and looked up at me with big tears in his eyes and said, “I know it’s my fault, I made a bad choice”. Meaning that he had been warned and the consequence came when he kept up with his shenanigans.
Hopefully a lesson not soon forgotten.
As part of our discussion, Big Mister was telling us how in conversation there is a time to talk AND a time to listen. When we pray we are talking to God. He then emphasized the fact that we need to take time after we pray to listen for this is when we can get answers. We then talked about ways that our prayers would be answered.
We decided to put our words into action and have a practice run of silence for one minute where we could “listen”. We began (and this is where Little Mister was sent to bed) and then sadly, it ended too soon.
We thought all teaching had been lost after the ordeal with Little Mister. Were our teaching moments spoiled, wasted?
NO! Something did get through their thick little skulls!
The next morning at breakfast it was Little Misses turn to bless the food. When she was finished she looked up and said, “ok, one minute to listen”.
Yes! She did learn something.
I then explained that we normally do the listening when we have private personal prayers. But if they wanted to, we could take one minute after the blessing on the food as well.
Then, that evening after Little Mister was finished with his personal prayer, he looked up and said, “Shhh! I am going to listen for one minute.”
Success? You betcha!
“One Minute” is now a part of the kids personal prayers. We want them to keep it up.
Now, I just need to remember to be silent for “one minute” and listen.
3 comments:
So sweet! I LOVE reading your blog...kinda makes me lonely though for my Cooley friends. I still can't believe that the day we moved into our Baseline home, we found the PERFECT family for us! A friend for Debi, me, AND Marsha!! Life was SWEET! (and with that...GOOD LUCK with the no sugar thing! I've been trying too! Somedays it is NOT hard at all and some days it is ALL I can think about...BUT it is SO worth it!)
What a great lesson...of course your kids get what you teach them. I have learned that even when you think they are not listening...they really are. Kids are amazing that way.
Too cute! I love this story, what a good reminder it is to remember to look for those teaching moments. I have been thinking about that lately as I find my interactions w/ a 13 year old are becoming so very different from my interactions w/ a 3 & 10 year old. As I prayed over how to deal w/ an issue this week, it came to me that it is now my turn to listen, guide and counsel as he makes his own choices (and suffers his own consequences). It has been a very positive learning moment for me as a mom.
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