What do you want your children to learn?
The Word tells us to “train up a child in the way they should go, and when they get older, they will not depart from it (what they were taught).”
Are we training our children to seek a path of greed, complacency, violence and selfishness? What do they see us doing? Whether we like it or not–our children watch what we do and say, and then do what we do. What do they see us doing or saying?
Watching The View the other morning, I was appalled to hear Whoopie Goldberg talk about teaching her grandson to use profanity. I wasn’t in the room with the television, but I could hear what was being said and when I went into the room to hear, I was ashamed. How could anyone think that teaching a child to use profanity was cute? And she just joked about it–like it was no big deal. It was a big deal to me.
I’m raising my grandson and it’s very difficult to teach him the things he should do, when there is so much out there–in the music, on the television–that he shouldn’t do. What I have said to him is this–If you don’t hear me say it; you can’t say it. If you don’t see me doing it; you can’t do it. And then, after I’ve admonished him about his behavior–I watch my own. No, I’m not a perfect human being–there aren’t any. However, I can teach my grandson to be a really good, considerate, and generous person who does not have to use profanity to communicate with anyone. How about that! I can train him to be a great communicator on another level–a level that demonstrates someone raised him in a loving, nurturing environment and one in which all around him knew how to effectively communicate–without using profanity.
What are you teaching your children?
maryhallrayford 