Teaching Your Child to Make Good Choices

One our biggest responsibilities as parents are to teach our children to make good choices. It’s not enough for them to do the right thing simply because someone tells them to. We need to teach them to choose wisely, even when no one is looking. 

Train up a Child

The Bible admonishes parents to “train up a child in the way he should go.” While discipline is a big part of this, it is worthless without training your child. The definition of training is: to teach a particular behavior or skill through practice or instruction over a period of time. This is what the Bible was instructing us to do. Training our children to make good choices is a daily process. Our children learn through trial and error that bad choices have unpleasant consequences, and good choices produce good results. 

Start Early
Teaching a child to make good choices starts very early in their lives. We teach them that the stove is hot and if you touch it you will be hurt, so that child is less likely to be injured. We encourage our children to be thoughtful and kind when they play with others. It doesn’t seem like much, but these small everyday choices are setting the foundation for our children later in life. It is so much easy.
A Relationship with the Lord Makes All the Difference
When our children make a personal commitment to follow the Lord, their desires change. They no longer want to live for themselves, they want to please God. This doesn’t mean that they won’t slip up, we all do. The power of the Holy Spirit is active in their lives to instruct, convict and restore them to a right relationship with God. Good choices don’t just happen, they are born out of a personal conviction that an action is either right or wrong. We can’t be everywhere, but God is. When we can’t give our children counsel or protect them from making a bad decision, God can. That is why we need to pray that our children develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We need to facilitate that as much as is possible and realize that each child has a free will. We need to cover them with prayer, and extend grace and love when they fail. We need to be agents of restoration and teach them what to do to restore a right standing with God when they make mistakes.
Communicate
As our children get older and their circle of influence widens, it is important that they feel that they can talk to us about anything. Sometimes we won’t like the choices that they make, but we need to extend mercy, grace, and love to them and help them to fix the situation. We have to give them the tools to make things right when they make bad decisions. Keeping the lines of communication open may not keep your child from ever making a bad choice, but it will ensure that your child has a safe place to turn for Godly advice and counsel. For more about homeschool books.