Pure doctrine

Sincerely seeking for answers, I opened my fast this month praying for direct revelation for how to handle the problems in our home. The only answer that came was, "teach pure doctrine." Don't we do that every day in our home?

I had to ponder for a while on this, but Sunday morning I called everyone down to a discussion. I labeled the problem I saw in our home: children were accustomed to obeying if they felt like it or at least if they didn't want to pay the price for disobedience. For the most part, this approach will serve them in life. But God has given children a commandment to honor and obey their parents. We talked about why this made sense: parents really want what is best for their children, now and in the future.

So pure doctrine taught, I established a plan for establishing change. I walk into their presence when I have a request for them to accomplish. I ask them to do it and come find me when they are done. The attitudes in our home improved and I had the opportunity to thank and praise my children for even the smallest of things.

This was especially powerful for Parker because of his defiance. First of all, it narrowed the behavior down to one simple thing. If he misbehaved, we asked him to do a service like making a bed for the person he was mistreating. We tracked his obedience with a behavior modification chart. At the next taekwondo practice, if there were more marks in the yes column than in the no, he could go. If not, we start a new chart and hope for the next practice. It was exhausting. But cooperation has increased and he even started doing things he knew were expected because I marked two yeses for indirect obedience.

Direct revelation, pure doctrine, happy home.