pre-decide
Today I was hanging out with a couple of my girl friends when J told us about a Proverbs 31 devotional she'd read about a month after school started about pre-deciding. She said she has taken the devotional farther by creating questions based on what if situations her kids may encounter at school (or other places). They pick one at dinner and then discuss what they would do. She and her husband are helping their children pre-decide their actions.
She said one of their situations was "what would you do if kids were using bad language at school?" They went through and answered and when one reaction (pre-reaction?) was not appropriate, they were there to address it. I LOVE THIS IDEA! We do a TON of pre-teaching around here but mostly for things we know are going to happen: what to do if something upsets us at school, what to do at baseball practice, what to do in the bathroom. But I love the idea of taking situations that aren't predetermined and talking about them openly. It takes the taboo out of things that can be tricky to talk about.
Then I was reading the She Reads Truth devotional for today and it took me to Ephesians 1:3-10. Verse 4 says, "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure." GOD PRE-DECIDED! He modeled pre-decision for us in making that choice to love us, to choose us to be holy, and to adopt us DESPITE what he knew we would be - sinful and unclean!
It really reminds me of adoption. You pre-decide to adopt a child. You pre-decide to redeem that child. You pre-decide to pay the costs (which are high). You pre-decide to love that child. You pre-decide he or she is worth it. What a beautiful picture our Lord has shown us in this process of his pre-decision.
So I am going to make this decision to teach my children to pre-decide. If we have in mind what to do or how to react, we are way more likely to stick with that decision because in our heads, it's already been made.
Revolutionary ideas from this friend, J. Always! This is the woman who told me to make supper while the kids are AT school to save myself from doing it while they are home. Revolutionary! She's so smart.
She said one of their situations was "what would you do if kids were using bad language at school?" They went through and answered and when one reaction (pre-reaction?) was not appropriate, they were there to address it. I LOVE THIS IDEA! We do a TON of pre-teaching around here but mostly for things we know are going to happen: what to do if something upsets us at school, what to do at baseball practice, what to do in the bathroom. But I love the idea of taking situations that aren't predetermined and talking about them openly. It takes the taboo out of things that can be tricky to talk about.
Then I was reading the She Reads Truth devotional for today and it took me to Ephesians 1:3-10. Verse 4 says, "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure." GOD PRE-DECIDED! He modeled pre-decision for us in making that choice to love us, to choose us to be holy, and to adopt us DESPITE what he knew we would be - sinful and unclean!
It really reminds me of adoption. You pre-decide to adopt a child. You pre-decide to redeem that child. You pre-decide to pay the costs (which are high). You pre-decide to love that child. You pre-decide he or she is worth it. What a beautiful picture our Lord has shown us in this process of his pre-decision.
So I am going to make this decision to teach my children to pre-decide. If we have in mind what to do or how to react, we are way more likely to stick with that decision because in our heads, it's already been made.
Revolutionary ideas from this friend, J. Always! This is the woman who told me to make supper while the kids are AT school to save myself from doing it while they are home. Revolutionary! She's so smart.
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