Saturday, April 26, 2008

Backing it up with Scripture

Meg has written an amazing post on the power of gossip and the Biblical imperative of using our mouths for praise and not for slander or complaining. Here it is.

I read it, went upstairs to get One from the shower, and he immediately said to me "Do you know why I don't like Logan at fencing?" I grabbed his Bible and read him Ephesians 4:29-32; Meg's post hit me at exactly the right time!

I need to get better at backing up my parenting with Scripture. I've always been good about explaining to the boys that the rules we expect them to follow come from God: they aren't mom and dad making up things to torture them, they are instead God-given wisdom on how to follow His will for our lives. But I'm lousy at really instructing them on chapter and verse - reading to them the actual passages that show them without a doubt that God is speaking to them.

I'm resolving to change all that. I want to pray for the opportunity to sit down with the boys when they sin and take the extra time to explain why it was wrong. I also need to put away my sense of self-importance about what I'm working on when their misbehavior interrupts me - I need to remember that these moments of instruction are much more important than anything else I think is so great and necessary. Will you pray with me?

5 comments:

Tiffany said...

Tari- saw your comment over at Mommylife on how to choose a Montessori school. I too am a Houston mom. We were planning on St. Stephens Episcopal Montessori for the fall for our eldest girl, but some things changed and she'll be home. Anyway, it was neat to read your blog.

I noticed Eclessia on your side bar. We don't go to Eclessia, but we do attend a play group that meets in their childrens area. Small world.

Tari said...

Thanks! It is a small world, or maybe Houston is just a small city!

We are at School of the Woods, which is a haul of a drive for us, but it has been so worth it. If you ever want info about it, just let me know. If we couldn't be there the boys would be at home; I've seen enough of other kinds of private schools in town to know that it's this or back to home schooling! :)

Tiffany said...

Had to Google the School. Looks really neat. I was quite excited about St. Stephen's but it is really expensive (8400 for half day) and we just couldn't swing it in the end. My husband is in Grad school and at first we thought he was finishing up this summer but now it is looking more like early fall. I'm excited to be keeping her home though. I was having second thoughts about pre-school before the money issue came up. I see all my friends whose kids are thriving in pre-school and I think that it must be the only way to do things. Then I poke my head up for air outside of my immediate circle and remember -"oh yeah, I used to teach. I was going to homeschool. why am I in such a rush for outside school to start?" I still find myself second guessing every now and then. And it is nice to know that if the first year is a bust that there is another good Montessori school to consider. ;-)

Tari said...

I would definitely choose to have kids at home for pre-school, if I had the choice! Even with SOTW, we sent our younger son to a more relaxed, play-based school for Pre-K this year. He'll start SOTW for K, but I really wanted him to have one more year of naps, cupcake treats, "keep yourself to yourself", circle reading time - all that good stuff.

A friend of mine from church is thinking about SOTW but knows that right now they can't afford it, so she is keeping away - she won't even go to visit, because she knows she'll start coming up with outrageous plans on how they could swing it if she did! :)

My older one was home for 1st grade, transitioning from bad school to SOTW, and his brother was home for 6 months of that year as well. We did the Pre-K package from Sonlight, and he had a blast with it. They give you a schedule for it, or you can just jump off track and do as much or as little each day as works for you. I think it was under $500. When he was home he loved "doing school" with the little workbooks - he felt just like his big brother, and even though he's been in Pre-K this year, we've continued to read all the books we didn't finish before.

If you want, email me at thoekel-at-comcast-dot-net and I can give you some home school info; we have lots of home schooling parents at Ecclesia, and some on my street as well.

Missy said...

I am on a tangent about heart based discipline. I will blog about it soon but I need to practice it a little more. But it is all about this and I am really excited because so far it has been WORKING.

An excellent book about this is Ginger Plowman's Don't Make me Count to Three, and she has a little booklet called Wise Words for Moms that you can get to. She has a chart for like, complaining or sharing and all the bible verses that address it. A cheat sheet for us :)