Teachable Moments

My eleven year old son Zachary came home the other day feeling bad about the language he'd been using lately. He said he was using not really curse words, but not good words. Okay, and maybe some curse words. He was doing this when he was especially annoyed with a certain kid at school.

Aha! A teachable moment! One thing I've been praying for is opportunities to teach both Tyler(6 years old) and Zachary more about God and how to glorify God in their daily lives. One thing that's really been a challenge for me is to know how to share the things I've been learning in my own journey with God with them. So finally I prayed about it, instead of just pondering about it, and God has been opening my eyes to these teachable moments. I also learn a lot about this from Scott, who amazes me by what he thinks to say to the boys about God.

So I told Zachary that it was good he was feeling bad, that's called conviction and when we have the Holy Spirit in us He'll convict us about our sin. Then the next step is to confess our sins to God. That means right then and there agree with God that you sinned, repent (turn away) from it, thank God that you're forgiven,and ask God to give you the strength to do what you need to do. So he prayed (repeated my prayer) and then we talked about what he could do the next day when he's around this annoying kid.

Today he came home saying he just kept his mouth closed and he got to work with a different group - away from this kid - for a while today. Thank you Lord for your answered prayers!