Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Discipline With The Bible


We have been very frustrated with Beau's recent misbehavior. He constantly ignores you the first time you tell him to do something and sometimes does the exact opposite of what he was just told. It came to a head on Sunday. I was fed up beyond belief, and I had no clue what I was going to do as punishment for his most recent disobedience. Ben decided to let him choose his own punishment. He chose 3 days of no TV. I didn't feel that was enough so I pulled out the Bible. I opened to Exodus 20: 1-17, the Ten Comandments. I made him read them out loud to me, a benefit of his extremely high reading level is that I can do things like that. He started reading. After the first commandment we discussed what false gods (idols) were. It helped that I am currently doing a Bible study about what false gods in my life take away from my time with the only true God (sorry tangent). On to number two, "You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain." Hmm, a tough one for him, he started to cry when he realized he'd broke one of God's laws and this has stuck with him all week, even holy is being eliminated in front of cow or crap because he thought that might be offending God. Then we talked about keeping holy the Sabbath and moved on. The next one was the big one for Beau. "Honor thy mother and father." Yes, he got the point, but there were more tears. We read through the rest discussing each one. We were accomplishing so much, and then God humbled me for this was His Word not mine and he prompted me to use His Word with my child, so we get to verse 17. "Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's ass." Oh man, Beau's eyes were huge, two minutes befored we'd discussed poor language and why it wasn't acceptable and then boom, this Bible couldn't say donkey. He knows an ass is an animal, but it didn't get by without a snicker, maybe that is how God meant for us to end the lesson. Beau wrote a letter of apology to God (and Ben because I wanted Ben to see what Beau felt his offenses were.) He learned something I think, but it didn't solve all the problems, Beau is a work in progress, but aren't we all.
Psalm 66:10
Daniel 11:35
God Bless,

2 comments:

Dora said...

That sounds like a great discipline idea! I am going to borrow that. I too get very fed up with Dylan's blatant disregard for rules and overall bad behavior.
-Dora :)

Anonymous said...

Wow that is powerful. I admire you for how you handled that. What a great mom and teacher you are. I think I am going to try to break out the Bible more often while my kids are in time out. Thanks for sharing! (And the ass thing is just plain funny!)