I know it’s been so long since I’ve updated my blog but we’ve been busy with summer! Taking holidays, doing day trips and just generally enjoying the freedom summer brings from the regular routine of life.

Now that’s not to say that we abandon the required aspects of everyday living…it just means it looks different than what it normally would. In an effort to refresh some of my parenting and endeavor to continue teaching my children the important aspects of our faith, James and I have incorporated some new material. We’re not rigid about it or even daily in our interaction with it but we try to find some time a few times in the week to engage and discuss some of the curriculum provided. If you’re interested check out www.kidsofintegrity.com

Anyway, we’ve done some bible memory and some scripture reading as well as interactive stories and behavior enforcing activities. I think that because we aren’t rigid about it the kids really enjoy it. What I really appreciate is seeing how different my children are through these activities. For example, Jake is completely amazing at the memorization of passages. He gets them within a day and remembers them almost as soon as I ask him to repeat it. On the other hand, Sam has a difficult time remembering the verses but gets them with some significant practise but he is definitely interested in discussing some of the scripture reading and what it means.

Tonight after we’d gone over our memory verse and then read a passage of scripture Sam started talking about a conversation he’d had with a friend. Over the last few days we’ve had to revisit some of the attitude issues and comments he’s made have led to interesting ideas of what heaven might be like. After a particularly difficult run-in that we had he was certain that he would rather be finished with his life here on earth and get straight to heaven. I informed him that although heaven will be great there is still consequence to his bad choices here on earth once he gets to heaven. In the moment that was lost on him and of course he didn’t believe me but tonight the comment came back and discussion ensued. “What do you mean there will be a consequence in heaven, so and so says there are no consequences in heaven”. Of course our earthly idea of consequence doesn’t begin to encapsulate what that looks like but it occurred to me that perhaps I had mislead him or that I had misused a word or two in the english language. So I began to try to find passages that would help explain what I meant.

Eventually I believe I got my point across. On earth, as parents, James and I discipline for wrong choices as well as the fact that there are natural consequences for wrong choices. However there is a reality that we will be judged for our wrong choices made on earth by a gracious, yet all-knowing God once we reach the mercy seat. It is clear to me in many of the passages that I’ve read over the last while that living righteously is rewarded in some capacity while living contrary to God’s word is met with some sort of consequence. I would never presume to know what those consequences are but I have no doubt that they will apply in some capacity. The conversation was very positive and I was grateful to see that Sam has clearly begun thinking through many of these ideas on his own. It gives me hope that we are doing something right when our children begin weighing the comments we make and asking questions about what they mean.