T.T. 58 - Developing good habits and making good choices.
T.T. 58 - Developing good habits
and making good choices.
As parents or teachers it is quite natural for us to encourage children to develop good habits and warn them of the possible consequences of making wrong choices. In some cases "the wrong choice" is obvious. However, in others, e.g. Halloween activities or watching certain films or TV programmes, Christians disagree on what "the wrong choice" is.
Rather than 'laying down the law' and often appearing to the children to be spoil sports, a far better approach is, I believe, to concentrate on teaching children to find out what God's will is for themselves. And of course, if they do that, they will make the right choice.
Jesus is recorded as saying that "It
is better to give than to receive." (Acts 20 v. 35). It is better for two main
reasons :-
A. As we give willingly to others
(of our finances, time or talents) we receive immense satisfaction in knowing
that someone is being blessed through us.
B. As we give to others, we place
ourselves in a position for God to give back to us and transform us more and
more into the likeness of His Son.
My Newsletter 19 describes a number
of ways to guide children into making right choices, but here are two ways in
which we can challenge children to put what they have learned into
practice.
Challenges.
Challenges.
1. I give the children (or some of
them if I have a large class) a small gift, such as a balloon animal, and ask
them to give it to someone else. They can choose anyone as the recipient, as
long as it is not someone in the same class. The following week, I usually don't
even have to ask the children who they gave their gifts to, as they are very
eager to tell me. In fact, I have never known a child be disappointed that they
couldn't keep the gift for themselves!
2. I challenge the children to do at least one good deed over the coming week. They can choose themselves what they can do and who they can do it for. I stress, however, that it cannot be some task that they normally perform, e.g. a regular chore at home. I find that most children willingly rise to this challenge and, the following week, are eager to tell me what they did.
posted by Maurice Sweetsur @ 1:57 PM
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