TEACHABLE MOMENTS

Hear,  O Israel:  the LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk  about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.  Deuteronomy 6:4-9

When a couple has a family along with it comes great responsibility. Obviously, shelter, food, and clothing are of utmost necessity. Most children in our culture have that need met. However, something that is lacking in many homes today is training the children in many areas of living such as manners, money management, communication skills, and proper dress. Unfortunately, many children are learning all of the above either by television, social media, and/or their peers. This is not really the proper way to train a child as it may not reflect the true values in a particular home.

Throughout the years that a child is growing up there are numerous 'teachable moments' that come about during daily family interaction. The problem is that most parents are either too busy, too distracted with their own situations, or too tired to take the time to use that 'teachable moment' to train their child. A simple thing may be proper table manners. However, not a lot of families sit down at the table together to enjoy a meal. Too often they are running out the door, swing into a drive-thru, and gulp down their meal on the way to the ball game. Family meals together are becoming a rarity for many of our families in our hurry-up culture.

 

We observed  a priest using a 'teachable moment' to train these young men in Germany.

As Christians we have great responsibility to train the next generation. When we were children almost everybody in our school knew Bible stories. Today if you go into a public school you would be hard pressed to find very many children who had been exposed to Bible stories. This shift has happened in a relatively short period of time compared to our nation's history. What will it be like fifty years from now? We are seeing the results of this lack of parental training in all areas of our culture. As a result, we are witnessing children out of control, teens without strong core values, adolescence that show lack of respect for parents and authority, and most appear to be lovers of self and pleasure.

 Jodi Schoonover is now a mother with a quiver full (5) and has many 'teachable moments'.

We need to be committed to praying for our nation, our culture and our families. The only thing we see changing our nation, our culture and families is prayer.

Blessings and Encouragement,

Paul, Gail, Patsy, and Penny