It is a beautiful crisp fall day in Indiana, one of the final yellow, brown, and orange days before it turns white and dirty gray and blistering cold. We go to a friends house to jump in the leaves because living in a subdivision we have no trees. Well we have "A" tree, but the leaves usually blow into the neighbors yard before we can get to them.
So here we go, dressed in our gloves, hats, and play clothes ready to play hard and tire kids out. My Little Lady wears a hat that I have never seen before, but that is not uncommon because we have neighbor friends along with my daughter that are constantly changing clothes and trading things, and frankly with 3 kiddos to keep track of things come and go.
So while the kids were busy jumping in the monstrous pile of leaves, the hat and her shoes came up missing. We eventually found both and my boys assured me that the hat did not belong to Little Lady. She insisted that daddy bought it for her on a date. Tommy did not remember, but assured us that it is possible. Little Lady is crying and assuring us it is hers. We said to Little Lady that we were going to call and ask the neighbors and she was waiting patiently for the answer. So I sent a pic to the neighbors and she confirmed it was her daughters hat. She had just bought it, so now we have to tell Little Lady the news we found out. It broke our hearts that she would lie to us. It broke our hearts that now we had to discipline her.
I stayed with the boys and my husband, who has an amazing gift of getting children to tell the truth, among other things, like detective work, he has the nose of a dog, took Little Lady aside and talked to her. He worked his magic because she finally told the truth. She was broken, crying, and remorseful. She said she loved the hat and she wanted to keep it. Tommy was very loving but firm. The next day Little Lady had to take the hat back to the neighbors and apologize. She did it with a cheerful heart. She marched right over and knocked on the door and apologized. She said, "I'm sorry I stealed your hat!" The neighbors forgave her and the little girls said, "Ava can you play?" So they were off! Relationship was restored and hearts were made right.
We all sin and fall short of the glory of God but what is important is that we learn from our mistakes and confess our sins and ask for forgiveness.
Training and teaching this concept at 5 years old is important and being able to accept responsibility for our actions is equally important. Godly character is what we are trying to instill in our kiddos. We cannot expect perfection, but we can expect to see growth.
Will Little Lady ever lie to us again? I sure hope not, but I know that our training and teaching will never stop. We are called to discipline. God says in Hebrews 12:11, "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."
Also Proverbs 13:24 says, "Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him."
Great discipline happens when the children accept ownership of their sin and are able to go to the Lord and the other person and confess and ask for forgiveness.
Discipline is from the Lord and needs to be done in love as a precious training tool, even when its hard.
So here we go, dressed in our gloves, hats, and play clothes ready to play hard and tire kids out. My Little Lady wears a hat that I have never seen before, but that is not uncommon because we have neighbor friends along with my daughter that are constantly changing clothes and trading things, and frankly with 3 kiddos to keep track of things come and go.
So while the kids were busy jumping in the monstrous pile of leaves, the hat and her shoes came up missing. We eventually found both and my boys assured me that the hat did not belong to Little Lady. She insisted that daddy bought it for her on a date. Tommy did not remember, but assured us that it is possible. Little Lady is crying and assuring us it is hers. We said to Little Lady that we were going to call and ask the neighbors and she was waiting patiently for the answer. So I sent a pic to the neighbors and she confirmed it was her daughters hat. She had just bought it, so now we have to tell Little Lady the news we found out. It broke our hearts that she would lie to us. It broke our hearts that now we had to discipline her.
I stayed with the boys and my husband, who has an amazing gift of getting children to tell the truth, among other things, like detective work, he has the nose of a dog, took Little Lady aside and talked to her. He worked his magic because she finally told the truth. She was broken, crying, and remorseful. She said she loved the hat and she wanted to keep it. Tommy was very loving but firm. The next day Little Lady had to take the hat back to the neighbors and apologize. She did it with a cheerful heart. She marched right over and knocked on the door and apologized. She said, "I'm sorry I stealed your hat!" The neighbors forgave her and the little girls said, "Ava can you play?" So they were off! Relationship was restored and hearts were made right.
We all sin and fall short of the glory of God but what is important is that we learn from our mistakes and confess our sins and ask for forgiveness.
Training and teaching this concept at 5 years old is important and being able to accept responsibility for our actions is equally important. Godly character is what we are trying to instill in our kiddos. We cannot expect perfection, but we can expect to see growth.
Will Little Lady ever lie to us again? I sure hope not, but I know that our training and teaching will never stop. We are called to discipline. God says in Hebrews 12:11, "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."
Also Proverbs 13:24 says, "Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him."
Great discipline happens when the children accept ownership of their sin and are able to go to the Lord and the other person and confess and ask for forgiveness.
Discipline is from the Lord and needs to be done in love as a precious training tool, even when its hard.
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