GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS – Feature 29 – “Train up a Child……”

Today I am grateful for the firm hand of my parents. 

I remember mentioning a few times in previous posts that our 6 year old son can be cheeky and rude at times, and so we have had to be keeping a close eye on him. ‘Mmm,’ I wonder where he got that? Well, as a child I am told that I was quite cheeky myself and so it is appropriate then to say that our son is really a mirror for me.

Anyway, last Sunday while at Church, we received a complaint that our son was rude to two ladies, the day before (He had accompanied his Dad to help set up for our Harvest Thanksgiving Service the next day and so he was playing outside while his dad worked). Apparently he was playing in some dirt and the two ladies called out to him, telling him to stop. I supposed they must have called out to him more than once and so, he turned his back to the ladies and put out his hand (open palm), I guess to say, “stop talking to me, can’t you see I don’t wish to listen to you.” I can only imagine how taken aback these ladies were.

I was horrified and embarrassed when I heard and so I went straight to find him. I found him sitting at the back of Church playing with his cousin’s I-phone. I began talking to him calmly about the incident, (this has always been my approach with him as I want to establish a calm line of communication to get him talking). I asked him why he was so rude to the two ladies. He was visibly upset and I later found out that this was because his father had a conversation with him earlier about the incident. He then said to me, tearing up, that he was angry with his Dad. I take it, for scolding him. I then went on to tell him that he had no right to be angry with his Dad, neither did he have any right to be rude to the ladies. To my dismay, he began turning away from me, displaying a bit of the same behavior he displayed when he was spoken to by the ladies. I was so upset, I took his cousin’s I-phone and sent him inside to sit until we were ready to leave for home. I further told him that certain privileges (computer, cake, ice cream) would be withheld from him for the rest of the day.

Amid'st all of this though, we were comforted when the lady who made the report to us, who we know very well as she is a member of our church, told us that she was happy to have spoken on our behalf to the other lady, of the type of well disciplined parents we were and there was no way our son’s behavior was a reflection of how he is being raised. This made me so thankful that we try as best as we can,

(these days our children come to us with such challenging characteristics), to raise our children with good traits.

I am grateful too that what we are able to impart to our children, is largely what has been embedded in us from our own parents. Then we thought that they were sometimes too hard on us, but now as parents ourselves, we do understand a little better. Thank God for them.