“May I please have some put your story down.”
I love it when children start to grasp the things you’ve been trying to teach them for months and/or years. I’m talking specifically about my child, Aubrey Joy, who will turn 3 at the end of October.
I picked up my latest copy of Group Magazine as I was headed out the door after Sunday morning worship at Coastal Oaks Church this morning. I had not noticed it in my box due to the week we had endured with VBS (blog // Reflections from the Croc Dock), so I grabbed it thinking I would thumb through it while I rested some this afternoon.
Well, I fell asleep.
What can I say? Everyone else at my house was doing it!
So after an abbreviated nap session (I could have slept for longer if not for the phone), I got up and not long after, my daughter also awoke and came out of her room. Since Mary was still out, Aubrey and I made a quick visit to the “potty room” and then moved on to her room for some Daddy/daughter play time.
The problem? I brought my magazine, thinking I could read it while she played by herself. Wrong! After several unnoticed pleas from Aubrey to “put your story down, Daddy”, she moved on to counting…like I was going to get in trouble for not listening to her. I looked up to see her stance soften a bit, now that she had Daddy’s attention. Then, in a sweet little voice, she says, “Daddy, may I please have some put your story down?” You understand this, right? We’ve been encouraging her to use “nice words” when she wants and/or needs something, instead of pitching a fit or yelling. Her nice words usually come when she wants something, sooooooo….she wanted Daddy’s undivided attention…and the magazine was in the way.
Awe, c’mon, how can I resist this? All of a Daddy’s defenses are useless against this type of “attack”.
I publish this story to illustrate a point and encourage other Christ-following parents who are in the throws of raising toddlers.
The right kind of encouragement (not brow beating, not threatening, not withholding) does work! Stay the course in teaching your children the things necessary to instill in them the virtues of Christ-likeness. BUT, heed this warning. Encouragement, training, teaching – whatever you call it – has little to stand on if the principles being taught are not on display in your home – specifically by YOU.
This is not a “brag on the Barlows” session to illustrate for you that Mary and I are great parents; we certainly have our breakdowns, our failures in communication, and our times when we feel we are pushed to the brink of a shut down. But I fully believe that the strides Aubrey has made in the areas of manors, politeness, and Christ-likeness are the direct result of those things being modeled around her. Children won’t pick up on, generally speaking, that which they don’t see demonstrated, plain and simple.
Do you want your children to use nice words in getting what they need or want? Do you want them have some resemblance of manors? Do you want them to be life-long followers of Jesus Christ?
Then model those things for them! Is it hard? Most certainly, but the rewards are eternal.
