Proverbs 12:10 says “The godly are concerned for the welfare of their animals.” My dear husband spent almost $4000 trying to stop her suffering, but early this morning around 1:30 am we knew we had to take her in and say good bye to her. This was the hardest thing we have ever done. Everyone but Jenny got to give her one last hug . Jenny has made a wonderful video tribute to Goldie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gx0eF1yG7A
We prayed earnestly for God to heal Goldie, but He had a reason to handle the situation another way. I know that one day we will be able to comfort someone in our situation. “God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” (2 Cor. 1:4)
“Why love, if losing hurts so much? …The pain now is part of the happiness then. That’s the deal.” C.S. Lewis (Shadowlands)
“The living God gives us all things to enjoy.” (1 Tim. 6:17) Thank you, God, for giving us 12 years of joy with Goldie.
Honesty is “being careful of what you say and do so others can trust you”. As usual God is our example. Many times in Scripture God says, “I have said it; I will perform it.” Hebrews 10:23 says “Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”
We are encouraged throughout Scripture to be honest:
Proverbs 11:1 The Lord hates cheating, but he delights in honesty.
2 Chron. 18:15 … say nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord
Ephes. 4:15 …speaking the truth in love…
In teaching our children honesty, we must be an example to them. Always do what you say you will do. If you make a promise, keep it; and never make a threat in disciplining that you can not follow through with if they disobey (example: I will throw you out the window if you scream one more time) Children need the security of knowing they can trust Mom and Dad. A child’s healthy relationship with his parents paves the way for a healthy relationship with God. We are God’s representative to them and need to show them they can trust us and Him.
Tell your children stories of men and women in history who told the truth and those that didn’t and suffered the consequences. Here are a few book or website suggestions:
Patience is “waiting until later for what I want now”. God is our perfect example of this as He wants our love and affection now, but He waits patiently until we are ready to yield to Him:
And remember, the Lord is waiting so that people have time to be saved…2 Peter 3:15
Don’t you realize how kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Or don’t you care? Can’t you see how kind he has been in giving you time to turn from your sin? Romans 2:4
If God has such patience with us, we should have patience with each other:
Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Ephesians 4:2
As parents, our patience is tested daily and there are times when we all think we have totally lost it. This is when we need to rest in the fact that through knowing God and by His power, we can endure anything:
We also pray that you will be strengthened with his glorious power so that you will have all the patience and endurance you need…Col. 1:11
Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. 2 Peter 1:6
One way our children learn patience is from observing us. They will usually respond to a situation the same way we do, so they need to see us exercising our patience in difficult situations. When we lose our patience, it can be make the situation worse; when we are patient, we have a calming effect on our children.
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering (patience), for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him. 1 Tim. 1:16
In addition to your modeling patience, you can have fun using creative activities to teach patience. Here are some ideas I have used through the years with my own children and with my two year old class this last month:
1. Our theme song for the month has been from a children’s musical called Music Machine (click to see this album available at Amazon.com). To hear the song about patience click here 07-have-patience1.
2. In this song Herbert the Snail sings “Have Patience”. We had fun making a snail out of clay dough and painting it after it dried. To make the clay-dough, mix 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, and 1/3 cup water. Roll the dough into a snake and curl it like a snail. Use a broken toothpick for feelers.
Herbert the Snail
3. We also learned to sign the song.
4. I had the children all sit down on the carpet and wait quietly until the timer went off (about one minute or so) and then I gave them a small treat and thanked them for waiting patiently.
5. We pointed out patience in any video we watched or book we read.
6. When we read The Tortoise and the Hare, we made a turtle out of a paper plate folded in half for its shell and then added a head, legs, and tail. We talked about how the turtle walked patiently toward his goal.
7. When we read Daddy, Are We There Yet, we pretended to take a car trip and talked about waiting patiently until we arrived at our destination.
8. I thanked them anytime I observed them using patience.
9. I acted out being impatient, which really surprised them to see me act like they do sometimes when they don’t get what they want and when they want it. ( I later apologized for not being patient)
I’m sure you can come up with more creative ideas of your own. Have fun and remember that with God’s power you can “Have Patience”
It is never too early nor too late to begin teaching character to your children.
Steve McChesney has a great article about teaching children the character quality of respect. It can be found at here.
I just spent a month teaching my two-year-old class about respect. We used the word often when correcting unacceptable behavior and we looked for examples of respect or lack of respect in any books we read.
I took Aretha Franklin’s song “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” and changed the words (see below). The children loved it and have really responded well to the teaching. They have grasped the concept of respect as showing kindness and they use the term appropriately, plus they have learned to spell the word. And they are only two years old!! You can see the video below:
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
R-E-S-P-E-C-T spells respect it’s plain to see.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T means I’m kind to you; you’re kind to me.
Show
Respect to your mom
Respect to your dad
Respect to your friends
Respect for their things
Respect to your teachers
Respect for your school
R-E-S-P-E-C-T This is what it means to me!! (clapping as you say this)
Here is another video teaching aid using Joe. Children are concrete learners so using visuals with them is very helpful in getting a point across. You can easily adapt Joe to help you teach many things to your children.
In this video Joe learns that he is special just the way he is. Self esteem is a foundational character quality that we all need to have. We as parents need to feel good about ourselves before we can help our children learn to value their own uniqueness. God wants us all to know that He loves us just the way we are. Romans 5:8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
If you can’t get the video to play, try clicking this link.
My son convinced me to livestream a video. So I now have a youtube.com account – my username is sheilahdaws. Look me up if you want. I’ll also post all the videos I put on there at this website.
Here is the first one I did. It is a teaching aid with songs to help teach the senses. This is simple to make out of felt and can be used with infants on up. The songs are easy to learn and children enjoy them over and over. I hope you will enjoy creating your own “Joe” and singing with your children as you help them discover that they are “wonderfully made” by God. (Psalm 139:14)
If you can’t get the video to play, try clicking this link.
( I later apologized for not being patient)