I heard a news story last week about how psychiatrists have adjusted the age for adolescents - not downward, as one might expect with all of the technology and knowledge out there, No. They have adjusted the age UPWARDS!! Adolescence, the experts say. now ends in our thirties!!!
Why do you think that is? Why are this nation's children maturing at a later date than they ever did before? I think it's for several reasons. In this age of political correctness and not wanting to offend anybody, I think we have carried it to the extreme and we no longer want to offend our children. Few are the parents who discipline their children for their own good.
Another reason our children aren't learning all of the life lessons they need to is because we parents never let them learn them. Parents have a natural-born tendency to protect our kids. Even Jesus mentioned this with respect to HIS children - Israel.
34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!" - Luke 13:34
My wife and I have raised two amazing kids. Probably more the work of my wife than me. It's fun watching our son and his wife now raising THEIR son - our grandson. This past Saturday my wife and I got to watch him for a day so we took him to the beach. That is where we came face to face with a teachable moment.Our grandson and his grandma were building a sand castle when I saw him getting ready to dig some hard-packed wet sand with his shovel. The picture I took is priceless because it tells a story of something that will happen in the future. One can almost picture what's about to happen.
At that moment I could have yelled out, "Don't do that!!! You're going to get sand in your face!!" But I didn't. What I actually took a picture of was "a teachable moment."
Yes, our grandson stomped on the handle of the shovel. Yes the sand flew up in his face. And yes, he began spitting sand out of his mouth. But that was also the last time he stomped on his shovel in such a way. He learned a lesson.
Life is filled with lessons like that. We try stuff, we fail at stuff, we learn better ways of doing things. We grow.
God sees everything we do. He knows what we are about to do before we even think about doing it. Yet, He lets us do the things we do. He lets us make stupid mistakes. He lets us sin, even though He doesn't like sin. Why? Because He wants us to learn. He wants us to grow. If we had nothing to repent of . . . how could we repent?
Our grandson is going to be an amazing young man one day. Why? Because he has parents (and grand parents) who are willing to let him fail so that he can learn the important lessons in life. Stepping on a shovel handle is small stuff compared to some of the lessons our grandson will learn in life. But perhaps this lesson was to teach him to think before he acts. Who knows.
Has God taught you any lessons in life? What have you learned from them? There are many things I am still learning as I walk through this life. That's how we grow. We will never stop learning. We will never stop growing. It is all part of God's plan for us - to survive in a crazy, mixed up world. We learn these lesson because we have an amazing Teacher. And because He loves us very much.
Kid Fails Video
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