I saw something amazing the other day. A friend’s little one was reading. And by little one, he’s not quite 3! (Yay Mr. H!!)
This, of course, got my little brain thinking about how reading is similar to how we teach obedience to our kids.
You don’t just sit down one day and read. Someone (or maybe several someone’s) somewhere at some point in your life took the time to teach you.
It often starts at home with mom. We teach our kiddos the alphabet song. They learn to identify letters with the infamous alphabet magnets that hang on just about every fridge in America. Then they progress to letter sounds, letter blends and at some point, we find our little humans reading.
It’s the same with teaching obedience. Our kids are not born with the ability to obey no more than they are born with the ability to read. It’s our job to teach them.
About the time my kiddos become mobile, we introduce the concept of obeying. “Momma said don’t touch. You need to do what momma says”. That’s like the alphabet song of obedience. That progresses into the first step of obedience, “obey right away”, followed by “obey cheerfully” and finally, “obey completely”.
These do not happen overnight just like reading doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and dedication. It takes consistency. It takes A LOT of deep breathing.
For some, reading comes easily. For others, it’s a struggle. It’s the same with obedience. Some kids are much more compliant. Some are....well, not. But we can’t give up.
If our kids struggle with reading, we do our best to help them. We may get them a tutor. We research ways to help them learn. We teach them techniques that aid in making reading easier. What we don’t do is throw in the towel because it’s too hard or takes up too much of our free time. We desire that our kids read and read well. We need that same drive and desire when teaching obedience.
“Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.”
Psalms 86:11