Discernment

Before we were parents, hubs and I worked as youth directors.    We used a book called "Learn to Discern" with our youth.    It was an in-depth study on discerning things from God and things not from God.

After the boys were born we felt strongly that this was something we needed to teach our boys.    One of the first Scriptures we used was  "Wisdom is the application of the truth of Scripture to our lives." (James 1:5)

We wanted them to know early that every answer they needed to know could be found in the Bible.     We used to play a game called "God Thought Of It First".     We played the game based off a book they had of the same name.   

As they have grown we have tried to get more and more indepth with our studies.    We want them to understand the Biblical worldview.     We have explained that bank tellers are trained to be discerning when examining money.    They have to tell the difference between truth and counterfeit.     We have the same responsibility as Christians.     Sometimes it is tough because evil likes to disguise himself as truth.    Even 2 Corinthians 11:14 says that "satan masquerades as an angel of light."

We have started to see glimpses of our boys using their discernment skills.    Big Guy has come to us several times within the last few weeks and said that he needed to return some video games because the language or some other aspect of the game was not something which he thought was appropriate.      Little Guy found a puzzle game which is loved playing on the computer but some of the ads on the side were not appropriate.    He decided to block that site and find something else to play.      

I know that they are going to have much better choices to make and we have a lot more to teach them, but knowing that they are beginning to trust God in these choices encourages me as I try to make good choices as well.