Monday, February 22, 2010

Simplifying God

I had a very sweet moment with Garrison this morning. Let me give you some background on a couple of things. Discipline: I try to keep it simple with basic statements like, "no touch", "that's a no-no", "that's bad", or "that's not nice". If/When he gets in trouble I keep it simple too, with a "you disobeyed". Other background info, teaching him about God: I've been intimidated on how to really do this other than he knows we hold hands when praying before dinner and will say amen. Recently I have begun to read the book, Shepherding a Child's Heart. The author talks about the importance of not focusing on the behavior of the child, but the heart of the issue. If the heart is good, the behavior will be good. blah blah blah....How does that work with a 2 year old? Maybe it will explain, I haven't got that far into it yet. But it has made me realize that I need to make more of an effort to explain God and His love for us to Garrison. Which brings me to this morning. When I was pregnant, a very dear woman that mentored me in Atlanta sent me a children,s rhyming Bible. It is the most clever rhyming book I've read (much better that a Wocket in my Pocket!). I truly love to read it, it is so clever. So we have started in the morning, after breakfast, sitting on the couch and reading a story or two and then "talking" about it. I talk, he blabbers. This morning we read about Adam and Eve and the Clever Snake. I was thankful it was a story that I could easily put on his level. "God told Eve, no touch!" He looks at me with his wide eyes. "But Eve disobeyed, she did a no-no", "ohhh" he says. I then went on to explain that we all have to trust and obey God. He loves us and knows what is best, and if we disobey then there are consequences, it doesn't mean that He doesn't love us or will leave us. "ohhhhh" he says again.