Lessons learned...

As we approach the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and while we have much needed time off to enjoy our families, let us make sure we’re using this time as teaching moments for our children. We ARE our children’s first teachers and everything they see us do, you can best believe… they mimic. This time of year brings on what I like to call the “holiday hoopla” syndrome. You know, we start seeing the commercials, the decorations, all the hype and we start to panic. We start to wonder how
we’re ever going to pull it all off AND if/how we’re going to get it all done with the resources and time - or the lack thereof - we have. 

  You see, God knows everything we need and desire… BIG or small.  Yes, He absolutely loves us and our families and He has our very BEST interest at heart!

 Remember it was He who said that He “richly gives us all things to enjoy” and it was His “GOOD pleasure to give us His Kingdom”!  We taught our children that yes, we should always be thinking of others and putting others before ourselves…that’s what this walk is all about, right? We also taught them that we serve a God who rewards those who serve Him and walk out His word. But, it’s also our job as parents to teach them the balance of it all. If our kids don’t get all they want on their “Christmas list”, do they have a conniption fit because they’ve seen us many times having an “adult” tantrum when we don’t get our way, or have they learned from us that we may not get everything we want, but our hearts should be conditioned to ALWAYS be thankful for what we do have? Or if things don’t go as planned during the holiday and they can’t go to the event that “all their friends” are going to. Do they think of it as another big “disappointment” from mom and dad for not being able to do “anything like the others kids get to do”, because they’ve seen us sit and sulk when our plans have not come together.  Or have you taught them to chalk it up as possibly that “thing” they may have wanted to do “so badly” could have been out of timing and could have been His way of preventing them from a possible injury or accident. You see, I’m a firm believer that there are lessons to be learned in everything! It’s our job as parents to use the wisdom of God to determine what those lessons are. Our children will always be “our children”, but one day they will become adults. The question becomes, have we as parents used the time God gave us to steward over them, to be examples, so we can teach them everything they need in order to become productive citizens, not only on this earth, but in His Kingdom as well? So, as you go about your merry way this holiday season, seek to find the lessons in life to teach your kids, even in the smallest of 
things.<---(tweet this).     Proverbs 22:6

All Rights Reserved copyright© 2012 Michell Pulliam “Prowess and Pearls” Devotionals by Michell Pulliam