This weeks assignment: Become a student of your child.
Motivation -
Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Deuteronomy 4:9 (NIV)
Explanation -
This week, your job is to observe your child's heart. Become a student of your child. WATCH his or her responses and make sure they are cheerful and obedient and he or she has his or her heart turned toward you. Watch for things like eye rolling, sighing, mumbling under his breath, subtle disobedience, slowness, and other passive aggressive behavior. Write it down or post about it and determine to address this subtle behavior and make sure your child's heart is turned toward you. (Now of course we should all be doing this all the time, but this is designed to be training US as moms to be more observant and not so distracted) Please let us know how it goes even if you want to be vague. How did your observation skills improve, post one thing you learned about your child's heart.
Purpose -
Remove hidden rebellion. Be a super aware parent. Get to know your child better, especially his/her heart. Turn your child's heart to you so you can turn it towards God.
Final Objective-
Have a Child who loves God and grows up into a strong Christan adult.
Additional Information -
We are all growing together on this journey, the message-board is full of anecdotes, and ideas for this week. So for EXTRA CREDIT take a look around and post a link to something that helped you with your child this week.
Links/Book Recommendations -
Raising Godly Tomatoes Main Page
Child Training Tips by Reb Bradley