Ever had a “YES!” moment? You know… one of those moments where everything makes sense, or where something happens that makes everything worthwhile, or where something just incredibly awesome occurs?
Nancy and I did tonight.
As parents, we often wonder whether anything we’ve been trying to teach our kids is actually sticking. I mean, we know it does… but sometimes you just wonder, you know?
Well… we’ve been trying hard to teach our kids about our faith. We’ve taught from devotions on a wide variety of topics. We’ve helped our kids memorize Scripture. And we’ve taught the plan of salvation.
Tonight, I was quizzing Jeffrey on the meaning of a Scripture passage he is memorizing for Awanas:
James 2:10
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
In elaborating on this passage, Jeffrey and I had a long exchange of questions and answers… just a great conversation about the basics of our faith. I asked him what laws are, what makes God’s laws special, what breaking God’s laws means, what the consequences for sin are, about what we should do when we sin, about what Jesus did for us, and about how we get saved.
Man, it seemed as though I was talking to a seminary student with a six year old’s voice. Jeffrey really gets it! YES! He KNOWS the basics of faith we’ve tried so hard to teach!
I’m SO proud of my son!
The humorous part of all of this?
I asked Jeffrey where he learned all of this. I quizzed him… from school? From church? From Awanas? His answer was priceless:
I just know. From getting in trouble so much!
Nancy said it was the first time she’s ever been glad he gets in trouble.
You see, when I punish Jeffrey, I’ve tried to make an effort to point out that disobedience to Dad is not the root reason he gets punished, but that his disobedience is sin, and that it’s God’s rules that he is breaking… that punishment is how we try to teach him to obey, not just for the sake of obeying us, but in the bigger scheme of things… to obey God. In doing so, we’ve had a great many opportunities to teach him about God’s ways and plans.
It’s obviously stuck… and I’m so proud of my son that I can hardly stand it.
Our 4 year old son sometimes really shocks us.
At times he will seem to have no concept of God or anything to do with him then every so often BAM, he’ll preach for 10 minutes – and it will be some of the deepest, most life changing stuff you’ll ever hear.
That’s why we keep on teaching them, so it’s there, maybe hidden, but there directing their steps!