Teachable Moments

This morning Wiley ran up to me, hugged me and said, "Mommy, I did a bad thing." (He's never said this to me before.) Surprised, I asked him what he did and he responded, "I don't deserve to be your son." My first thought when he said this was to be upset that he would say or think such a thing. It took me a minute to understand what he had said. Then it was all I could do not to laugh. You see, Wiley has a children's book that is the story of the prodigal son. In the story the "bad" son took his inheritance from his daddy early, went away and spent it all. When he returned to his father he said, "Father, I am sorry, I did a bad thing and I no longer deserve to be your son." We have been reading this book to Wiley and often try to explain about sin and God's forgiveness. I never really thought he was listening but apparently he was. So this morning when he said that to me, we took a moment right then to learn about how we are God's sons and daughters because He made us. When we do bad things, this is sin. When we sin we do not deserve to be God's sons and daughters anymore. But just like the father in the story, God forgives us and gives us grace whenever we come to Him and tell him we are sorry.


We often miss opportunities and moments to direct Wiley's thoughts towards God, so I am thankful that God sometimes drops those opportunities right into our laps so that we can't help but to recognize those moments for the teachable times that they are.


Thank you, Lord. Please make us into faithful and Godly parents who seek to always, moment by moment, direct our children to the things of You. Amen



By the way, I never did find out what "bad thing" Wiley thinks he did.