training little natures

As I was cleaning up cat vomit this evening (I know you are so excited to read on now), I was thinking about how nice it would be if we could train our cats to throw up their hair balls in the toilet or at least on the laminate flooring instead of the carpet!

Now in this whole cleaning process I got to thinking (in the spaghetti-like way my brain works) how difficult this whole "training up" our children can be!  I'm not trying to say that our children are like animals, but yeah, I guess I am.

When our firstborn was old enough to start training, we were frustrated when our bright little one did not remember the lesson we had taught her just minutes before! We were pretty naive.  I mean really, can you train your dog to do a new command in one lesson? (I don't know for certain because I've never had a dog). I'm guessing no.  So what makes us think that we can get out child to respond correctly after only one rebuke, one lesson? 

So fast forward a few years later and we now know that some lessons are going to take years to learn.  Sometimes our kiddos "get it" within a day or so (but this is a rare and miraculous thing).  Most lessons have to be taught over and over again.  Just as memorizing a scripture takes repeating and practice, so does training a sinful litte nature to turn away from the wrong and make the decision you have been teaching their little heart to make. 

So here's my encouragement: don't give up, dig deep for patience.  Try, try again!  Someday you will see the fruit of all your hard work. Take hope. (I live in the world of hope - it's the best place to be when you are raising children).

KC