training to remember right from wrong

Tanya, I am in this same boat and here are the practical things I have learned thus far from both my mentors and my husband.

1. My husband says that sometimes men “just don’t think about things the way we do” It is the whole concept that women are like spaghetti – everything flows together and men are like waffles – all things are compartmentalized. When they are doing one thing that is what is on their mind. Most often other things do not flow into their thought process during that time. That being said my husband has come up with systems for himself that help him remember certain things. So how does this apply to our boys – well for my 5 year old I have seen that lots of short reminders – not lectures – right before each situation helps him remember. Before i take him into Sunday School I bend down and say “do you remember what you are suppose to do when the teacher is talking? And what are you suppose to do if the other boys start to talk, squirm, etc?” That is it. It is a gentle reminder as he walks into a situation.

I think that this parallels how the Holy Spirit uses the Scripture that we hide in our hearts. The Bible says to hide God’s word in our hearts that we may not sin against him. The act of hiding the word is not what helps us not to sin. But the Holy Spirit using those words to gently remind us in situations is what helps us not to sin. Once we are reminded by the Spirit we, as Christians, choose to either be a slave to that sin or to turn from it and obey God. Our boys have that same choice. As a mom, we gently remind them as they enter a situation what is expected of them and then the choice is theirs – to obey or not.

2. This comes to the second thing – natural consequences. Sometimes it is sincerely the issue of not remembering. Other times it is their sinful LAZY hearts that choose for it to not be important enough for them to remember so they make the choice to forget. The best way to make the issue important is for him to suffer natural consequences of the decisions that he makes. If he is continually misbehaving with a certain friend then he should not be allowed to play with that friend for a period of time. Because we are not just to confess our sins but rather to confess and turn from it. I think it is great that he is honest with you about his bad choices and most likely I would guess that his problem really falls in the issue of #1. But we have to just be careful that he isn’t just telling you the truth but not truly turning from his sin. I don’t know your child so you will have to be the judge of that. If you think it may be the later then I would suggest invoke natural consequences that will help him remember ALONG with a gentle reminder before his activities, especially those in which you are not present.

I can’t say yet how long these “gentle reminders” will be necessary because I am, as I said in this boat with you. I have been told that to not grow weary in doing this because eventually I will reap a harvest of faithfulness. I take that to mean that eventually these gentle reminders that I give him now will in fact sink in and cease to be necessary. But what I don’t know is if they will just be replaced by other ones. My husband still has to have his own gentle reminders. Who know? Hope this helped.

Amy