Of course my girls were not as excited about my wonderful creation as I was...so I bribed them (yes you heard me right I bribed them!!!) with the promise of a scoop of ice cream after they ate ALL their lunch. My oldest ate all her lunch up in a jiffy and started in on her treat. My youngest wasn't wanting to eat her lunch but really wanted the ice cream...so my oldest spoon fed her until she had eaten it all.
Left was my lovely, but sometimes sneaky, middle daughter. I was in the kitchen cleaning up and felt the need to look in on her in the dining room. I looked just in time to catch her throwing a small piece of her food onto the ground. I quickly said her name and she jumped for dear life....she had a look on her face like a deer in the headlights. She got caught.
I could have handled the situation a number of ways...in reality it was just a small morsel of food right? No biggie, no REAL harm done, just a small unnoticeable amount. But I turned it into a HUGE lesson for my daughter...one about honesty, integrity, and honoring God....even in the smallest of moments.
She was not given the opportunity for any ice cream. There needed to be consequences for her actions because, although small, it was wrong, deceptive, sneaky, and dishonoring. I wanted her to understand how exactly sin works in our lives.
It starts out small, harmless, no big deal, no body would ever know, no one else would be impacted by that choice. But sin takes root and grows and festers.
SIN WILL TAKE YOU FARTHER THAN YOU WANTED TO GO, KEEP YOU LONGER THAN YOU WANTED TO STAY, AND COST YOU FAR MORE THAN YOU WERE WILLING TO PAY
Every day we have opportunities to teach our children the principals behind our faith, help them to understand right from wrong, show them how much God loves and values them, and extend grace and forgiveness to them just as God extends to us!
My daughter may have missed out on a delicious bowl of ice cream today but I hope and pray that the lesson she learned would be something she carries with her all of her life...how amazing it feels to confess wrong, to make things right, to be embraced with open arms and to receive forgiveness, and to have the weight of sin lifted. No amount of ice cream can measure up!!
I wanted to share all of this today because there are many days as I mom I feel overwhelmed, discouraged, unmotivated, weary, and come down very hard on myself. But it's in moments like today that I am reminded...it isn't all for nothing.
Keep up all that you are doing moms!! Your kids will someday be world changers all because you stopped to teach them a lesson on honesty over one tiny morsel!!
