Wednesday, January 20, 2016

If Jesus was Standing in Front of Me...

One of my most treasured aspects of homeschooling is our Bible time.  Now I know that you don't have to be a homeschooling family to have Bible time, but because we are not rushing out the door in the morning, we have the blessing of spending as much time as we want on this particular life-giving subject.

Since my kiddos are 11, 8, and 5, I have to chose Bible lessons that will work for all three.  This can definitely be tricky.  Instead of buying a curriculum for this school year, I decided to make things easy on myself and use the homework sheets that are passed out by our church.  The kids learn from these lessons on Sunday and then we complete the short lessons throughout the week.  Some days we spin off into a completely different direction and other days we stay on our topic for quite some time.  
I wanted to share the second day of this week's lesson with you because it had such an "ah-ha" moment for my kids.  The focus for this month has been taming the tongue and watching what we say to others.  Oh my - the topic of self control!  So many times these lessons are great reminders for myself, too. :)  The lesson asked the kids to think of bad words that should not be said.  Since we homeschool and because my husband and I do not curse, the kids do not know the really, really bad words.  To them, a bad word would be "stupid" or "shut up".  So I decided to make a slight change to the lesson and talk about what we say or the tone we use when we talk to others.  I have always been someone who really has to watch my tone, as well as, the expression on my face... Oh wait!  We are talking about the kids, right? :)

The lesson asked the kids, "If Jesus was standing in front of you, would you say that (fill in the blank) word?"

So, I altered it and asked, "If Jesus was standing in front of you, would you say those things, or use that tone?"

Wow!  Their eyes about popped out of their head.  You could tell the light bulb went off.  They immediately responded with, "NO, NO WAY, ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

The has to be the best question EVER!  It really could fit for any age group and any situation.

"If Jesus was standing in front of you, would you listen to that song?"

"If Jesus was standing in front of you, would you watch that TV show?"

"If Jesus was standing in front of you, would you gossip about that person?"

The list is endless.

So now, this is something we are trying to focus on.  I have even heard them reminding one another of this new question.  It pretty much extinguishes any argument that may be surfacing.  Now, we are not perfect and we are constantly trying to work on ourselves.  We will mess up...repeatedly...we will constantly be reminded how patient God is with us.  But now, we have a great question to help us along...

"If Jesus was standing right in front of me, would I.....(fill in the blank)?"

We also focused on the verse, Ephesians 4:29.   Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that is may benefit those who listen.  Are the words I am saying helpful to this person or is it just so I can have my opinion?  Ouch! That is a hard one!

I loved this lesson so much that I wanted to share it with you.  I know many of you will enjoy passing it onto your kiddos, as well.






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