Tackle a "summer attitude" with the Bible

The other night I found myself laying in bed venting to my husband about Summer and our "summer attitude" we've apparently developed in my family. I remember telling him how frustrated I was and that I was seriously considering year round homeschooling because since we've been on break the general attitude of my kiddos has lacked. Greatly.

I'm SO tired of the whining, complaining, arguing, not listening, etc. 

SOOOO tired. 

We spent a while talking it out and talking through some ideas and then the perfect idea hit me. We began it the next morning.

Let me illustrate.

First we began in scripture, Ephesians 6 1-4 of course was one we touched on. But we also did the above. I taught the boys how Jesus is our Savior, but He is also Lord over our lives and therefore we are to follow His Word left to us.
Therefore, each morning we begin anew with a clean sheet (that represents our soul/spirit), and throughout the day as we make bad decisions or do things that are against God's Word we affect our relationship with God, our relationship with others, AND we hurt ourselves. We are no longer whole.

Each child got a clean piece of paper with his name on it.









Through the day when I asked them to do something and they argued/whined/complained/etc I told them "go tear off a piece of your paper". They tore a piece and put it in a jar. 








And so, at the end of the day we looked at our papers, and discussed how we had affected our relationships with those around us, and with God by our bad choices. It's those bad choices that keep us from having peace and joy. And I reassured my guys, that of course the next morning there would be a clean white piece of paper for us to try again because Jesus IS our Savior, but to remember, He's also Sovereign Lord so while we can never be perfect, it's still our job to take up our cross and follow Him, and that includes His Word.





Believe it or not, the past few days since we've been doing this have been MUCH better. They are thinking about their actions and how they affect me and others around them. I'm excited to see how my husband and I can build on these lessons with those from the Bible. I think there's more to this story, it just hasn't been told yet. ;)