It happens every year. Attend any performance involving a group of children and inevitably there are one or more who are in obvious rebellion against everything they have been told to do by the director. You know the child. It is the one who shouts into the mic and laughs, even after being told multiple times for weeks to speak normally. It’s the child who screams out to audience members while others are trying to say lines or acts silly in an obvious bid to be the center of attention. (Mind you, I’m not talking about age appropriate wiggling and such.)
At the risk of being called a cranky old lady, what sends me over the edge with these children is their families. I can’t think of one time when the offender’s family has apologized or looked evenly slightly upset at their child’s behavior. Instead they egg it on in often not so subtle ways. When this happens in a church setting, I get particularly upset. What these parents don’t understand is that they are encouraging their child to have bad manners and have no regard for the feelings of the other children, the director or the families of the other children.
Manners education has been pushed aside in many homes as old fashioned and out-of-date, a product of a bygone era. Unfortunately, the lack of good manners is hurting the Church in major ways. The definition of manners in the secular world is doing what is necessary to make others feel comfortable and appreciated. There are four even more important reasons why it is essential, Christian parents spend a lot of time and effort on teaching their children good manners.
Continue reading Four Reasons Manners Training Should Be a Top Priority for Christian Parents
My favorite part of Christmas is that our daughter has a lengthy break from college. It allows us some time together when she isn’t forced to spend a lot of time on schoolwork. This year instead of spending all of that free time with your kids in separate rooms doing different things or stuck with your total attention on devices, make a difference.
If you are like me, clothing care labels are more confusing than helpful. Many of those international symbols are not quite as clear as I am sure their designers had hoped. Attempting to place labels on people can cause confusion and a lot of unintended problems as well.
Back in the times of the Bible, the names given to children were meaningful. Not just that the names had an original meaning which may or may not have been considered. Children were often named for the hopes their parents had for their future or unfortunately for some (poor Jabez! I Chronicles 4:9) what they put their mothers through in labor and delivery.
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