When our children learn to walk, we follow them for the first few steps, then they go on their own – exploring further and further.
When our children learn to ride a bike, we hold onto the seat for a bit, then run behind – but we’re quickly outpaced.
They grow, we teach, they try – and when they succeed we let them explore further and further.
We want the best for our kids, right?
Or do we?
Do we want the best faith or do want to control our child’s faith?
How controlling should we be?
Not to long ago I ordered some parts for our gas grill. The heat shields had completely rusted away and two of the burners had holes in them causing some rather uneven cooking.
Amazon had the parts for rather cheap and it looked like it would be a fairly simple do it yourself project.
Last Christmas, my then 5 year old son Alex, let me know that Home Depot should be a priority stop on our Christmas date – he wanted to look at tools. He’s been a bit of a “daddy’s helper” when it comes to home repair, but that was when I realized that his enjoyment went beyond simply being with me.
For Christmas we gave him some tools and some parts to build a toolbox…and his passion for fixing grew. Since then I’ve added other tools and given him some specific jobs for fixing things (he’s responsible for making sure the kitchen chairs remain tight – he regularly checks to see if any are wobbly so he can fix them). I’ve also tried to involve him in other home repairs.
Get back to the grill »
As I tucked my oldest son into bed, he asked me to place the book that he had been reading on his shelf and said, “That is the best book that I have ever put my hands on.”
For Christmas, we gave him The Action Bible. In essence it’s a storybook bible meets comic book – Just the right combo for a pre-teen boy. It was created by Sergio Cariello, who has worked for both Marvel and DC Comics, and it shows in his beautiful work here.
If you haven’t heard of this book, you can see the David C Cook ad on YouTube. While I would normally say that kids don’t respond as they do in this ad, it’s exactly the way my son has taken to reading it.
To give you a better picture of what he thinks I thought I would let him share it himself (a transcript follows the video):
See the Interview »
When I was young I never realized how easy falling in love was ; although I didn’t act on most of them, I had crush after crush. I loved different girls, pizza, Thundercats, Star Trek, ice cream, the list goes on and on. Love came easy. Certain looks or connections make it easy for us to be attracted to another. Eye color, body shape, clothing choices – we all have preferences that attract or repel us and often we think of these attractions as love.
As I counseled with the couple of whose marriage I spoke of last week I told them, “Falling in love is easy. Staying in love requires a plan.” In other words, those things that initially attract may not always be there…and if they stick around they sometimes become common place or even annoying.
Most nights at our house something that many people would consider amazing happens. Our youngest (5 years old) tells us he is ready for bed by asking us to tuck him in.
In an almost accidental way, we’re helping our children develop self-discipline.
Routine is important to a young child. It gives them confidence that things are safe and the world is working the way it should. Knowing thing, we’ve made extra efforts to have a routine for bedtime and as a result, our children rarely battle bedtime. While everyone’s home is going to operate a bit differently, maybe it will help to know what we do:
Snack, bath, teeth brushing, stories, prayers, hugs and kisses, reading time, lights out. This generally starts a little before 8 with lights going out at 9:30. Alex tends to ask for tuck-ins at 8:30.
