Benefits Part 3- Self-Control April 16, 2007
Posted by Erin in : Family Worship Series , trackbackJoe,
That was an excellent way to look at the benefit of growing in knowledge. It gave me a new vigor to commit other things to a simple 10 minutes a day!
The third area of benefit that I am addressing today is the discipline children gain in self-control. Anyone that has young ones knows how hard it can be for them to sit still for any amount of time. But this is an area that we can all be trained in (even the adults out there who have trouble sitting still and focusing for 10 minutes!)
In the discipline of sitting still and paying attention, the younger you start the better! We did not start true family time until Abby was over a year old. So we were behind the 8 ball with her and had to work a little harder to break some already formed habits. Elijah is 11 months old and is now joining us for family time when we do it at a time he is awake. As with any habit, the earlier you start the easier it is to establish and the less bad habits to undo!
This is an incredible benefit not only to making your family time peaceful, but also for other areas of life. What a joy it is to have children that you can take places and know they understand what it means to sit still and be quiet! This has benefited us in many areas of life. With living overseas and traveling, we have to spend long flights on the plane with our young children. When they have been trained to sit they don’t need to be running all over the plane and disturbing other passengers. This is one small way we can be a light for Jesus to the world. Another situation this has benefited us is in church. Here in Spain, there is no nursery for the children until the sermon begins. So that means for the first hour of church, the kids are with us. It has been great to have kids who are trained to sit with us.
The mention of church also brings me to think of the benefit of self-control in preparation for joining parents in the worship service on Sunday mornings. We are planning on having Abby begin sitting up with us possibly this summer. With the training she has had in family worship time, this should be an easier transition.
So what are some practical things you can do to instill this self-control of children during family worship time? First of all, silence is expected from the children, except when they have been addressed or are expected to join in (as in the instance of the singing of a hymn or the reciting of Scripture). They also need to sit still, facing forward. Abby was having some problems with wanting to rub her shoes together as we sat there at one time. Those sort of issues need to be addressed. Elijah being younger, is expected to sit on my lap, facing forward. He loves to turn around and pull up to stand on my legs. But at this time, he needs to sit facing forward. Another challenge with young ones is teaching them to keep control of their hands. Elijah is often wanting to grab at the pages of the hymnal or Bible, but must be trained not to touch. One last thing to look out for is the children distracting one another. Right now our little ones love each other dearly (praise God) but it can lead to them distracting one another. Make sure the older is setting a good example for the younger.
You will see an amazing benefit in your children learning to sit still for even 10 minutes at a time. Self-control is a wonderful fruit God blesses our children with through family worship time!
Training our children in self-control with you,
Erin
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