From A to Z: Letter O

I had it all planned out. A peaceful painting session with sparkly yellow paint, busy little hands, reading the story of Abraham out of our Bible storybook, and pretty music in the background. Only, it was more like:

"Stop putting paint in your brother's hair"

"Sit down and finish your stars"

"You don't need any more colors. We are using yellow"

"Stop trying to sit in the same seat as your brother"

There were a lot of directions, but not a lot of listening. We finished our painting session with me feeling exasperated for trying to teach them that O is for Obedience is Best when they had disobeyed me repeatedly. 

I'm guessing I'm not the only momma who would raise her hand if someone asked if shepherding obedience in little hearts was challenging. Right? 

Something I want to teach my kids is that obedience not just doing something because someone told them so. When you look at the Bible characters who did (or did not) obey God--you see a trend. Obeying God brings good things and disobeying God brings not-so-good consequences. I hope to teach my boys that I am asking them to obedient because I want the best for them (aka: I want them to stop running into the street so they don't get smacked by a car). Or I want the best for someone else (aka: I want them to stop hitting their sibling so their sibling stops getting hurt). Of course, we are still working on the basics around here (I feel like it's a minute-by-minute part of parenting. Ha!). And I have a feeling that there won't be a day that my children are suddenly obedient 100% of the time. It's just a feeling ;) 

Hopefully as you do your star and stick craft and read the story of Abraham, little hearts will hear that being obedient is not a chore--it's a way to love God and love others. Not only that, but being obedient is for our best and the best of others too. 

Have a good one!

Nicole