Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
TRUE HEARING RESULTS IN ACTION
I received a number of requests from my post yesterday: "What do I do when my children won't obey right away?" "What do you do to get them to obey consistently?" "What are practical tips for following through?" And so on.
I believe there is one important principle we have to understand before we can expect obedience. We must teach them to listen before we can teach them to obey.
Therefore, when you tell your child to do something, you must speak to them face to face. Make sure they hear you. If they are very little, you may ask them to repeat back to you what you have asked them. Now you know they have heard you. Once they have received your instruction, explain that true hearing results in action. As soon as they hear what you say, they must immediately go and do it.
When they are little, you may take them by the hand and do the task with them to teach them that the moment you ask, they perform the action. It's hands on learning. They then learn to get into the habit of doing this. As they get older, you must give appropriate discipline for not obeying your command.
We have a friend who has this motto. "As soon as I read something in God's Word I immediately try to put it into practice." This is a great way to read God's Word. We train our children to have this attitude as we teach them to do what we ask right away. It is what God expects. He expects nothing less than obedience.
Obedience is an important theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The attitude of Christ from eternity, and as He faced the cross, was "Not my will, but thine be done." Philippians 2:6 tells us that He "became OBEDIENT unto death, even the death of the cross" and He wants us and our children to have this same attitude.
Are we training our children to have this attitude? Of course they will fail. They are human. But we daily train them. It takes consistently on our part. It is being obedient ourselves to God's plan for us as parents. If we are disobedient to teach them how to obey, how will they learn to be obedient?
I'll share more of ways to help them obey in the next post.
Love from Nancy Campbell
