Mom Heart Moments #125

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

SCRIPTURE IS VERY CLEAR THAT we are to discipline and train our children. Discipline is not really an area I know how to write well about, though, because it’s such a personalized issue in which other people’s directives probably won’t help us much, because they aren’t written for our specific children! For me discipline was an overarching journey and relationship. I would approach each day, each minute, each child with my grid of expectations, knowing the way I wanted to train them. I developed an internal filter clearly focused on the results I wanted to accomplish with my children, and then all day I was with them, operating from that filter.

I had two main themes in parenting: honor, which focuses on attitude, and obedience, which focuses on behavior.

Both were a part of what I knew I needed to secure with age-appropriate expectations. Children need to know what is expected of them before we discipline them for not obeying. Yelling may be needed at the moment a child is in danger, but usually a child should know to obey ahead of time. Children must also know a parent will surely take action if they do not obey.

What have you found to be the most productive way to train your children toward obedience in advance?