Everyday Talk

Brian and I are reading this book together (actually, I read to him!) by John Younts right now ... it's titled Everyday Talk: Talking Freely and Naturally about God with Your Children. We aren't quite halfway through yet, but so far it has been an outstanding read. Younts gives practical ways to talk about God to our children every day in our every day talk because as he states ... “The most powerful personal influence in your child’s life is everyday talk.”

As we have sought to teach our children the importantce of obedience, we have taught them that they need to obey in three ways: Immediately, completely and joyfully. And when they do not obey, our job is “to recognize their sin for what it is and teach them how to deal with it God’s way.” We can only do this when we understand that their sin is primarily an offense against God rather than against us, and that although they have sinned against us, it is most imporant for them to repent to Him.

This paragraph in Chapter 5 is outstanding ...

"Parents, when you give in to anger, resentment or self-pity at your children’s bad behavior, you make yourself the center of the problem. You are loving yourself first and most. You must love your kids enough to show them the danger of their behavior. They need to see that their first problem is with God, and only secondarily with you. ... You must be more concerned for them than for yourself, and you must be concerned most of all for God. By modeling patience, love, self-control - and all the fruit of the Spirit - you teach your children how extraordinary God is."

That is our desire ... to teach our kiddos how extraordinary God is. We want our everyday talk to impact our children for the glory of God, and this book has already been a wonderful tool in evaluating the way we talk to our chilren in every day life, in every day moments, and in everyday talk.