02.10. CHAPTER 06 - TEACHING OUR CHILDREN DISCIPLINED HABITS

CHAPTER 06 - TEACHING OUR CHILDREN DISCIPLINED HABITS

Discipline is a good thing to teach our children - discipline in their eating habits, their study habits and even in their recreation. Even during holidays it is good for them to do a little study and memorising of Scripture.

Life will be much easier for us, if we teach our children early in life to take care of their own things, to keep their things neatly, to get up on time, to eat their meals on time, etc., The older children can also be taught to wash their own underclothes and to share some of the heavy work at home, so that they don’t take their mothers for granted. This may take a little time for them to learn. But once learnt, these habits will help them throughout their lives. Our children must also be taught to honour God and to put Him first in their lives. One way is by teaching them when they are young, to attend the meetings of the church regularly and on time. I have seen how my own children have experienced God’s help, when they honoured God by attending the weekly Sunday meetings, even when they had examinations the very next day. God honours those who honour Him.

Children should be taught to sit quietly in the meetings. By teaching them this, we will be teaching them to respect God, by not distracting others who are listening. We can give small children some storybook to look at or a colouring book to paint. Even when they are older and sitting by themselves, we should keep an eye on them to see that they are behaving themselves. If we find them misbehaving, we should warn them when we return home from the meeting and remind them of the importance of reverencing God.

It is not good to give older children storybooks to read during the meetings, if they are old enough to pay attention to what is being preached. If they can pay attention to their teachers for 3 to 4 hours every day in their classrooms, they can certainly pay attention for 2 hours in a meeting. We would not want them to be reading story books, while their teachers are explaining something. Neither should they be doing that in the meetings!

Children must be taught to be content with the food and clothing they are given and also not to be wasteful with material things.

Disciplined study habits are also important. We may have to sit with our children, especially when they are small, and go over their lessons with them so that they can be confident in the classroom. We don’t want them to make education their god. But God will certainly not be glorified if they do badly in school because of their laziness. Our children may not be intelligent. But we can teach them all to be hardworking.