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To be perfectly honest ... this has not even come up at all in a good little while.. we have modified a lot of how we do things - and this just does not come up anymore... anyhow.. what did I learn from the thing I have already started talking about that you are still in the dark about (unless of course you read the title....)
Elijah will throw an everliving fit when we have him get off of a video game. He loves to play any video game.. often the first words I get out of him when I get home are "Daddy, I play ur Xbox?" and a big HUGE grin is on his face. I love it! (pictured above is what I found at the house when my new magazine came in...)
But I do not - completely do not love the tantrums that come with trying to pull him off of a game. It is like I did the worst thing imaginable to him. He would be heartbreaking to watch it I was not so angry with his silly fits.
The odd thing is that if we are about to eat and he has been playing a game - he turns it off and immediately will join us to eat - or set up the TV so we can 'watch something'.
This may seem amazing - this may seem incredibly awesome, but the truth is - he was trained! Not on purpose, but trained non-the-less by me and my past actions. I had no idea what I was doing would so ingrain in my child an attitude of obedience that I wish would occur every moment when I want it to.
Whenever I play my Xbox and we have dinner/lunch/food - I turn off the game and we all sit down to 'watch something' as we eat. (it could be anything ... Dr. Who, Phineas and Ferb, Warehouse 13, Tangled, really just anything that is on netflix that the kids enjoy... or the disney channel)
But because this routine was set by me, over time Elijah just understands that - that is how it is, so when we eat he has no qualms with putting down the controller and not picking it up again.
I have noticed this as well as Mel and I have truly started a bedtime routine. (you can read about the starting of that on my wife's blog) Doing things in a productive AND fun way teach much easier than yelling and drilling it into their heads. We (Mel and I) try to always take this approach with Children's Church (link here) so check out how that is going via the link.
What I encourage you with today is to KNOW that you are teaching by your actions - do right no matter what and you do not have to worry about teaching someone incorrectly - keep yourself accountable! You CAN do it! God is with you!
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That is so true. Many of us "Christians" don't realize just how much we are being watched and learned from in all aspects of our lives both the seen and the unseen.
ReplyDeleteIt's not uncommon for a child to want to be like his father so why is it then do we not treat God the same way? Do we get so distracted with our lives that we fail to look at the way God would do things?
I'm reminded of the song "Cat's in the Cradle". Only we are the one's that aren't spending time with our father. He is always there and wants to be a part of our lives but we put it off like we have more important things to do.
Even the "good" Christians among us do it. They make themselves so busy doing things for God that they forget the most important part. Spending time with him.
If we don't keep our relationship with God in it's proper place we will loose focus and begin to do things in our own power and make decisions of our own accord thinking it's what God want's. When in reality we left him sitting at the table waiting for us to come and eat with him, to fellowship, and to rest in him.
I am pretty bad at working.. when just sitting and BEING WITH GOD is all I actually need.. great reminder Tim!
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