One of my greatest joys as a parent is reading to children—both my young children and those who are beginning to reason. We spend at least two hours five days a week reading as a family. Through these times, we grow together in learning a body of knowledge about a particular time period, for example; but most importantly, I can get a glimpse into my children’s hearts and also build upon the principles of the Word through our discussions.
When parenting young children, establishing grace-based rules with clear consequences for disobedience sets the stage for reinforcing the principle that obedience brings blessing. I have used this phrase (or a part of it) when reading to my reasoning children from the Word and from other books.
When I read stories to my reasoning children, I often stop in the middle of a story and ask them, "What do you think will happen next? If this author understands the principle of 'disobedience brings pain,' then what should happen?" And we move on with a discussion. I share some of those discussions here and here.
We can use this principle—disobedience brings pain; obedience brings blessing—to teach our children to be discerning about what they read. And children who have experienced the pain of disobedience will be more likely to understand the principle of this concept as they begin reasoning more fully.
their senses are trained to discern good and evil. ~Hebrews 5:14
Other articles in this Discipling Reasoning Children series:
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