Caught not Taught

By Stacey Davis

Have you ever had one of those moments when your child yells at you and you yell back “Do not yell at your mommy!”?  Or you catch your older child saying mean things to your younger child shortly after you lost your temper with your husband?  Or how about this one, have you ever spanked your child for hitting another kid?  Yep, I’ve had those moments.  I’ll admit it freely.  Sometimes I forget that I have an audience watching me constantly.  Recently I discovered that Hallmark has a line of cards called The Edge of Motherhood.  One of the cards I read had me laughing out loud in the middle of the store.  On the front is a little girl holding a baby doll and the bubble above her reads “Look, I’m a Mommy!  Leave me alone!  I need a shower!  Where’s my martini?”  The inside reads “Ah.  Kids.  They’re the mirror you wish you didn’t have to look into.”  I stopped laughing after a few minutes and starting thinking.

Any parenting expert will tell you that children learn by imitation.  It is an important part of developing a myriad of abilities ranging from language to social skills. Take the baby who mimics you sticking your tongue out at them.  Plainly stated, kids learn from example.  And they need our example to learn from

Deuteronomy 6:5-9 reads “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. “

God’s word tells us to impress loving God upon our children.  His word tells us to talk to them about loving God all day long, to post this commandment in our homes and on ourselves.  He knew that we would need reminding.  Our children learn first from us on how to walk with God by watching our walk with Him.  We can sit down and do devotions with them, we can take them to church and Sunday school, and we can watch 50 million Veggie Tales movies.  But what are we doing at the other times?  The times when we are at home with just our family and no one else is watching?  Are you showing your children what it means to love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength?  Are you teaching them to be kind by being kind to them and their dad?  Are you teaching them to love others by resisting the urge to yell some choice words to that driver who just cut you off?

3 John 1:4 says “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth” (New American Standard Bible). Today Mom, take some time to love yourself, to love your God, and throw out to some good stuff for your kids to catch.