Firewood, Pots, and Parenting
87% of parents don’t realize to what extent they are training their children in righteousness!
O.K. So I made that statistic up, but did you know that you are probably doing a better job at training your children in righteousness than you realise (Proverbs 22:6)?
Yup! You heard me, you are most likely a more godly, more spiritual, and better parent than you give yourself credit for (now isn’t that something you don’t hear everyday!).
Photo Credit: Flickr/Captured by Ciara
And what’s more, is that your children don’t often realize how much training they are receiving in the midst of daily life either.
To illustrate this, I would like to share with you a couple of incidents that occurred in our home recently. These seemed pretty straight forward, but at second glance, were teaching our children so much more behind the scenes.
Firewood
We live in New Zealand, and at the moment, it’s the dead of winter here. A few mornings ago, our five year old son and I had woken earlier than the rest of the family, and seeing that there wasn’t enough firewood in the home to light a fire and warm the house up, I decided to ask my son to go outside to our woodpile to bring in some logs.
Yes! I could have done it myself, without the extra hassle of explanation, or bearing the blunt of some groans. But I knew that there would be some good lessons for my sweet boy to learn.
You see, something as simple as sending a little boy out of his comfort zone in the cold for three minutes can teach him so much:
- He learns to sacrifice his own comforts for the sake of others.
- He understands the value of hard work.
- He contemplates considering others more important than himself.
- He yields to obeying God’s Word, and the authority of his parents.
- He experiences the joy of his family thanking him for a job well done.
Pots
A day or two later, my sweet 11 year old daughter, burned a saucepan while she was kindly preparing oatmeal for breakfast for our family. She stepped away from the stove, forgot about her cooking, and the result was a charred pot (and inedible oats :-)).
Now, I would usually be super tempted to simply scrub that dish for her. It would seem quicker and easier on a regular, busy day, than instructing her how to do it, having her clean a pot rather than doing something more productive, and be left with a container that I’d have to clean again anyway.
But! The lessons in her cleaning that pot herself were valuable, and in my role as a mom who is to train her children in righteousness, I dare not have robbed my precious daughter of these:
- All actions have consequences
- Think ahead before you do something
- Be committed to something from beginning to end, without forsaking what you start halfway
- Be willing to fix your mistakes, if possible
- Be diligent (careful and persevering in carrying out tasks or duties)
- Be hard working, doing each task as unto the Lord.
Parenting
So, if the term ‘training in righteousness’ has sounded rather ‘spiritual’ to you before, rest assured that a lot of it is far more practical than most dare to believe.
I would like to encourage you, dear friend, to view every incident and episode as an opportunity to mature and nurture the souls of your little ones.
Think ahead to a week, month, year, and decade from today, and invest in enriching the character of your young treasures.
Source the daily goldmines of teaching and training possibilities through the seemingly mundane circumstances, and polish your children’s hearts with these.
Dear Parent,
During the moments and minutes that make up each passing hour;
In the midst of the busyness and bustle of each fleeting day;
And as fatigue, frustration, and failure blind you;
Know that your efforts to invest in your babes’ future will be well worth it.
They will thank you.
Perhaps not while they are collecting firewood in the cold, or scouring burnt pots. But the little people that you are training in righteousness will be a blessing to many others. Most of all ministering to the heart of the King of Kings.
So, are you included in my imaginary 87% of parents who don’t realize to what extent they are training their children in righteousness? Why or why not?
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