Scripture and Discipline

So this whole being a parent thing... It is just as hard as everybody said it would be... And just as rewarding at the same time. Two of the hardest parts to me are discipline and being faithful to teach Biblical truths. Recently we've had a bit of a breakthrough with both, so I thought I would share (and have a record for personal encouragement when things get difficult again... like they are sure to get :))

In theory it seems simple, discipline and teaching the Bible, that is. But in reality it takes (for me at least) organization, dedication, endurance, and lots of patience. This book has helped a lot lately!

It's the ABC Bible Verse Book :) before Christmas we were working through a chatechism with grace. This was great and she really seemed to enjoy it and respond well to our "question time". She learned basic truths about the nature of God and man and sin etc... But after Christmas she just wasn't into it anymore. And honestly, I wasn't either. And let's all be honest about the fact that it is about near impossible to get a two year old to learn something if they have no desire to do so. So I didn't press the point. The last thing I wanted to do was make learning about God a negative experience.

SO I changed tactics. I found this book and we started taking a verse day by day and talking about it. Grace LOVES this. And the fact that each verse has a picture and a corresponding alphabet letter makes it even better. We usually do our "Bible Verse Book Time" at breakfast. Jack is napping and it's the beginning of a new day and we are usually in pretty good moods. We cover several of the verses that we already know and then look at a new one. I read the verse and then ask grace if she knows what it means. Then I show her the picture and explain (to the best of my ability) what is happening in the picture and what the verse means. She loves to hear what the "situation" is on each page, and instead of just memorizing words I feel like she is understanding a bit better how the words apply to real life situations.





Which brings me to the discipline part of the scenario. Jonathan and I have decided to go the time out route with grace for discipline. It just seems to work with her personality. We'll have to see what works with jack in a few moths and adjust accordingly. In practice I think time out actually works with my personality as well. I need that 2 minutes of her sitting in the corner to calm down and make a clear headed decision about how a situation should be handled!

So this is how our time out routine goes. Once she has served her time I sit down on the floor in front of her. I ask her why she had to come and sit in time out. She usually gives the right answer and knows exactly what she did wrong. I ask her how she is going to change her behavior and she usually gives the right answer (sometimes she needs a little prompting). Then I ask her to apologize. She says, "mommy, I am sorry for ______. Will you please forgive me?" I say, "yes, I forgive you." then we hug and say I love you's and go complete the unfinished task at hand.

But lately I have been adding our bible verses and chatechism into out time out routine. It is working SO well! After she tells me what she did wrong we talk about it using the knowledge we have of the bible. For instance, if she says something disrespectful and goes to time out we will say "honor thy father and mother" or "be ye kind one to another" and "as for me and my house, we will serve the lord". And then we use our chatechism knowledge to remember why it is important to do what the bible teaches... to love and honor and obey God... And we want to Glorify God because this is why he made us!

So the point is not that she has to obey mommy because mommy said so or because I want her to be well liked by her teachers or even because she needs to have good manners in life or I have a need for an orderly household, but it is because it's important to do as the bible teaches. And we desire to honor Gods commands in the bible because we desire to honor God.

I am sure there are tons of Christian parenting books out there that talk for pages and pages about discipline, but honestly I haven't read much. Jonathan does most of the reading in our family. I don't like it. I know I should, and I'm working on it, but I just don't like it. So I suppose you can say this has been a bit of a breakthrough for me... in the way I look at a discipline opportunity. A great opportunity to reinforce biblical truths... Not the main teaching time, mind you. Just a good time for life application lessons for a 2 year old :)

And can a 2 year old learn 26 bible verses and pages of questions about God and humans and sin nature and forgiveness? Why yes!!! And it can even be fun!!! But it has to be important to mommy and daddy... The 2 year old will see how important it is to her parents and desire to have the same knowledge... And enjoy the praises she gets when she learns!

But if the 2 year old is Grace Nida don't even think about trying to talk about psalm 56:3. She wants nothing to do with the "afraid one"... She is a little scared of thunder ;) I suppose the next time there is a thunder storm (if it ever rains again) we will have another good opportunity for reinforcing biblical truths... Because no matter how much she wants to avoid it, she knows this verse by heart;)





Ps. It really helps to make up silly little songs out of verses and sing them all day long... And you may even find that YOU start to learn verses and apply them to your own situations... For instance, it is much harder to become perturbed at your fellow walmart shopper if you are humming "be ye kind one to another" under your breath.... Or say, your 2 year old is singing full volume from the shopping cart your pushing... I'm just sayin'.