Disciplines of Life

I’ve been thinking about paths lately… spurred on by reading in Jeremiah and considering ‘the old paths’ and doing the things we know to be profitable in our home/life. I had to smile at the following video. In our home, through the years, we’ve had many, many opportunities to train up boys and girls in the way they should go. This, most notably, is a spiritual training – but, it’s also training in life skills, work ethic and manners. Repetition (both in direction and practice) is the key to accomplishing the objective and to developing abilities. But, more than all that, it’s not just important that our children know how to work as that they do so of their own initiative – that they know what to do and do it well — that they see a need and fill it — that they do what needs doing without being told to do it – and doing so cheerfully.

So, we’re ever in training — ever in training mode.

And it’s not just important that our develop habits or manners — it’s important that they have a basis or a foundation for why they do or don’t do particular things. Beyond basics, they need to know why we tell them or instruct them the way we do. [I see I failed to originally share that our love for and thanks to the LORD is the foundation or the ‘why’ behind the way we go. Otherwise, we’d just be training the flesh to comply.]

From an early age they are learning about virtues, faith, honour, trust and obedience… behaviours of civility and self control and soon they move into reflecting moral understanding and to developing disciplines of responsibility and order and discretion. In time, they start to more deeply grasp the basis for morality along with a personal responsibility for actions, decisions and the benefits and consequences of attention or neglect.

Repetition. Repetition. Repetition – we pray the repetition results in a fruitful life – a life fully yielded to the LORD.