Shaping Developing Minds
Bringing up children in a world full of not so good choices can be challenging at the best of times. It seems that whenever you say no they have a friend whose parents said yes. The underlying allegation being that you are unfair or that your reasons aren’t valid.
Gone are the days when children were silenced by a simple no without any explanation necessary or hushed by a glance. Although, even during those days when the questions and challenging behaviour are endless, I must confess I prefer to explain in the hope that some small shred of understanding will stay fixed in their minds. My hopes are many and I must confess to often feeling that despair is just around the corner.
Then they surprise me and I hear them explaining to a friend why something is not such a good idea and I check to make sure it is the child of a thousand questions that I had almost given up on who is speaking. It is! But the next moment reveals that words and behaviour are two very different things – and so the battle to influence, shape and train the erring mind continues. Time waits for no one and soon they will be all grown up and I will see at last the end result of all my efforts. Am I filled with hope or fear?
This makes me think about my own behaviour and slowness to understand and change. I keep pushing along using the same attitudes and behaviours that have tripped me up before. I keep getting the same results and my life continues on the same merry go round because I keep doing the same things.
Not that I don’t know better -I have a whole Bible full of instruction to help guide me and God is not slow to answer my prayers. No I’m just stupid that way. Really slow to translate what I read and pray about into actions and new habits. I’m slow to develop new ways of thinking.
Often I wonder at the longsuffering nature of God that He should watch and listen to me whilst I live through the same self created bad experience again and again. It always takes me by surprise and I always rush to Him amazed that things turned out that way and wondering why I can’t learn.
Yet His constant care towards me and confidence in me, (after all He has already prepared a place in heaven for me so that must mean He believes that I can make it if I wish to!) gives me hope. I may be a slow child but I am still His child and so I know that I can learn and become and change no matter the journey ahead.
Don’t despair - lifelong learning can lead straight to eternity if you choose your teacher wisely. Choose God.
“Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Romans 12: 2 (NLT)
“The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.
Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”
Psalm 32: 8-9 (NLT)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.”
Proverbs 3 : 5-6 (NLT)