"Creative Correction"

I have been motivated by other bloggers to post what strikes my heart in what I'm reading. And the most recent book that I can get my hands or attention on right before falling sleep is the book that my mom surprised me with that's titled "Creative Correction" Extraordinary Ideas for Everyday Discipline by Lisa Whelchel. This book is suppose to be about giving creative ideas with God as a focus on disciplining your children. It gives reasoning behind the discipline with the bible/ scriptures to back it up. So this is probably towards all those parents/ mothers reading this. I love this book so far and I'm only on page 57. Here are a couple inserts that hit my heart enough to underline, star, dog-ear and blog about. Maybe they will mean something to you too.

* How to present the picture - Discipline, when administered consistently and lovingly, encourages willing obedience. Obedience is based on trust. And at the heart of trust is love. I can obey God, my heavenly Father, because I know He loves me and I can trust that anything He asks of me it ultimately for my own good. In the same way, our children need to be convinced that we lobe them unconditionally. They need to trust that when we require them to do something-and discipline them when they disobey-we're doing it for their own good. She explains this with two illustrations.

The first one is called Faith Fall. Very similar to trust fall, someone is suppose to catch you when you are falling backwards; trusting that person will catch you on the way down. She explains that we are to trust God the same way we are trusting that spotter behind you. You can trust that He will be there when things seem scary or doesn't make sense. He cares enough to catch His children and He's strong enough not to drop us!

The next one is call the Umbrella Illustration. (This one I might just use!) You would draw an umbrella with the family underneath it. Then she explains, "When you are being obedient to the things Daddy and I have taught you, you are safely under the umbrella of our protection. The world might 'rain' all sorts of problems and temptations on you, but you are protected. God has designed Mommy and Daddy to be an umbrella for your own safety. If you choose to disobey and walk out from under our covering, you'll have to deal with the harsh elements of the world." This illustration will helped the kids to comprehend why it's important for them to follow our instruction. It has also been helpful to reference when they feel we're making a bad decision. When that happens, we are to explain that even though they might think Mommy and Daddy's choice is wrong, it is still safer to obey us and remain under our 'umbrella' than to be vulnerable to the dangers and lies of the world. God will deal with us if our choices are bad.

* Subtle forms of disrespect - By training our kids to respect authority, we're teaching them how to relate to God. They can't obey Him if they haven't learned to listen to Him; they won't listen to Him if they don't respect Him; and if they don't respect Him, they won't submit to Him.

* The bible as the final word - In the book For Instruction in Righteousness, Pam Forster writes: Our child needs to understand that the authority that we, as parents, exercise over him is delegated to us by God. When we discipline a child for wrongdoing, we do so because God says his action is wrong, not because of some arbitrary standard we have fabricated. Our children are much more open to correction when God's standard, not ours, is held up before them. If the Bible is our authority, our children will grow to understand that "right" and "wrong" are based on God's standards, not our own personal standards. Love that!!! Because the rules we are instilling are God's, I no longer have to respond with "Because I'm the mom. That's why!" I can respond with "Honey, I didn't make up these rules, God did. And this is what He says makes life work. And because I believe Him and I love you, I'm going to enforce what He says."

Our children will respond best to the Bible when they have learned to love it. But first they need to see that we love God's law.