I tend to have the most interesting conversations with my children around the dinner table. I cherish these moments and often times wish I had a video camera rolling to capture all of their precious toddler logic. :-)
Tonight the kids were telling me what they wanted to be when they grew up. Brenden (5) told me that he wanted to be a "Fixer" like Daddy and work on building houses and fix things. I explained that was called construction and that he could be a construction worker. (My husband actually doesn't do this for a living, but works on remodeling/repair projects around the house so my son refers to him as a Fixer). Joshua (3 1/2) told me that he wanted to be a Firefighter and put water on fire to save people and cars. :-) I then asked Trinity (2) what she was going to be. Joshua told me Trinity was going to make flowers. Trinity confirmed this by saying "I be a princess and make flowers, okay Mommy?" Too cute!
Then we had some pop left in our fridge...(Let me explain: I NEVER buy pop so you won't find it in our house. This was a rare occasion because someone else bought it and left it at our house. I always buy them juice or milk when we eat out somewhere, so this was a special treat for the kids.)
I poured the pop in their cups and they started calling it the "Burn Drink." I thought maybe they were calling it this because it was dark (almost black) in color and to them it looked burnt. So I asked them why they called it the burn drink. They told me because it burned "just a little bit." I realized they were referring to the fizz (carbonated water). I explained that it was called fizz. Joshua then educated Trinity on the subject just as I has told him just a few seconds ago telling her "Trinity, the Burn is called Fizz" :-)
Then Joshua looked at me and said "Mommy, the pop lives in the ball." I thought maybe he had said bottle instead of ball. So I corrected him and he said "No, in the ball..." then he pointed to the Pepsi symbol on the bottle. :-)
I will forever treasure these conversations.
Luke 6:31 "Do to others as you would have them do to you." (NIV)
Philippians 2:3, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (NIV)
Psalm 133:1, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” (NIV)
"Mommy, Brenden took my car!" ~ Joshua
"Mommy, Joshua take my princess!" ~Trinity
"Mommy, Joshua hit me!" ~Brenden
"Mommy, Brenden BIT me!" Joshua
Having a 5, 3 (almost 4) 2, and a newborn at home can be challenging. I try to include scripture lessons in daily life where I can. At their age the conversation is usually quite simplified and involves me opening the conversation by saying "Jesus says we should..." or "Jesus wants us to..."
My boys can become quite physically violent in their arguments with each other (kicking, biting, hitting, pushing, etc). My husband and I try to be consistent in dealing with these actions to "nip them in the bud" and prevent a bigger issue in the future as they age. They know that when they treat each other harshly or are unloving toward each other they are going to be punished. But do they understand why?
I wanted to make sure that my children knew not only that they would be punished for such actions, but also WHY it was so important to treat each other with love. Luke 6:31 came to mind. I told my children that we were to treat each other with love. I told them that Jesus wanted us to show love to each other and not be mean toward one another. I explained to my children that if they wanted their siblings to treat them with love and be nice to them they needed to show them love and treat the other person nice too. Each time my children would have an argument I would reemphasize this scripture verse and lesson.
As many times as I kept repeating these teachings, my children would say "Okay" and five minutes later turn around and start fighting with their sibling again. Apparently they did not think this applied to their siblings. :-) Just about when I thought that nothing was getting through to them, my neighbors were having a rather loud argument. (Since our houses are fairly close together, we unfortunately, can hear our neighbors arguing; especially when the weather is warmer and our windows are open). My oldest son, Brenden, went over to the window and listened for a few seconds. Then he came over to me and said "Mommy, they are not showing love to each other. They need to show each other love. I will tell them to show love to each other..." He then started talking out our window instructing them to be loving toward each other. I don't believe my neighbors heard any of it (by this point they had returned inside), but it was a joy to watch my son put the teachings I had been laying on his heart into practice. It might still take some time for him to apply those teachings to his siblings, but at least I knew my words and God's Word was resting on his heart.
It was an encouraging reminder to me that even though at times it might not seem like anything is "getting through" to my children, they are listening and absorbing everything I say and I need to keep planting those seeds of Godly wisdom and instruction on their hearts. :-)
