Biblical Devotions For Child-Training; Week 4 Pride

The last few nights I have been talking with my kids about pride.  I have been reading to them as a devotional from this book I was given, "For Instruction In Righteousness A Topical Reference Guide for Biblical Child-Training." They didn't quite understand the meaning of the word pride, so we discussed how it meant to put more trust in yourself and your abilities over God.  A proud person looked for compliments, praise and glory for themselves instead of God.  This book really helped me with ideas of how to explain bible verses on a kid level.

As I was reading this I began to think about blogging.  This is where I have a problem with blogging, for me.  I don't want my blog to be a place where I am looking for compliments and praise for my sewing, writing, family or whatever.  I struggle with this.  I would love to have a blog that was able to share my creations and point to God all at the same time.  I am so thankful for the ability God has given me in sewing.  It calms me and having a project makes me so excited for each day.  I can't wait to share what I am working on right now.  I hope my creations inspire others to create too.

So I talked with my kids about how we shouldn't be looking for praise all the time and praising ourselves.  The kids are always looking for attention and when I give one a compliment the others are jumping around trying to get compliments too.

Proverbs 27:2 (NKJV)
"Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth;
A stranger, and not your own lips."

Thanksgiving Dinner

The kids took turns praising each other and saying again how thankful they are for each other.  I also lavished praise on each of them and how amazing and important each of them are to me. It is better to receive praise from others than to praise yourself and they learned how great it felt to hear good things about themselves from their siblings.

Proverbs 25:27 (NKJV)
"It is not good to eat much honey;
So to seek one’s own glory is not glory."

This verse was easy to discuss with Halloween still fresh in their minds.  We talked about how eating lots of candy makes your tummy hurt so seeking glory and praise is not good for you either.  It is like being sick in your soul.

Psalm 73:6 (NKJV)
"Therefore pride serves as their necklace;"

Proverbs 18:11 

(NKJV)

"The rich man’s wealth is his strong city,

And like a high wall in his own esteem."

Wurzburg, Germany

I told the kids to imagine having a chain around them.  I had each of them wrap their arms around themselves and imagine they are chains.  How easy is it to move and do things?  They quickly realized how little they were able to do when they couldn't move because of their arm chains.  Then I said imagine you are still in chains and in your own castle with high walls all around you.  Now you have a hard time accomplishing anything and you can't ask for help because you have high walls all around you.  And that is what pride does to you.  You have so much confidence in only you and your abilities and thoughts that you can't possibly think you could be wrong so you can't ask for help.  They all understood this and had a great conversation over it.  They started remembering many times when they were full of pride and couldn't believe they had the wrong answer which led to arguing and anger and separation from each other.  This is what sin does to us.  It puts us into our own castle and steels our joy and friendships.  And we can do this without even realizing it until sometimes it is too late.