I was sitting outside early one morning enjoying my first cup of coffee. I noticed a young bird slowly hopping across the yard. At first the young bird seemed to be all alone; then suddenly the mother bird swooped down beside it and then flew up in the tree.
I continued to observe as the mother bird repeated this motion—she would rest beside the young bird and then fly again into the safety of the branches. Each time she seemed to be showing the young bird the right way to go. I then noticed something very interesting. The young bird made a few more hops toward the tree where its mother rested nearby, and then with determination, hopped without hesitating across the yard in the opposite direction.
“A wise youth accepts his father’s rebuke; a young mocker doesn’t.” Proverbs 13:1
Teach your children from an early age to choose between right and wrong. Notice little situations that you might use as a teaching time. Little by little your children learn to make decisions on their own.
There will be times when your children will make the wrong decisions no matter how much you try to show them the safest path, just like it was with the mother bird and her young. When they do, they must live with the consequences and often learn a valuable lesson at the same time. “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6.
I guess we are all like children. We often go our separate ways refusing instruction or criticism. When we do this, we miss out on a chance to be nurtured and protected. We are never all we should be, and it takes the observance of others to make us realize this fact.
“Anyone willing to be corrected is on the pathway to life. Anyone refusing has lost his chance.” Proverbs 10:17.
Have a blessed day!
In Christian love,
Diane