Parenting Moment: Default Responses

The blueberries we’d just bought had scattered all over the floor. So much for putting the groceries away.

As I knelt to pick them up, I heard my child, in a perfect imitation of me, say, “You need to learn to be more careful.”

Ouch. The last time I’d had an accident like this, my child had offered to pray for me, told me it’d be okay, and helped me pick up the mess. Now this? What had changed?

I knew the answer. Like it or not, our children’s default responses mirror our own. And lately, I’d been defaulting a bit too much to trying to instruct in carefulness, neglecting to really demonstrate compassion and pointing to the Lord first.

What do you want your child’s default responses to be to accidents, struggles, things not going your way, sickness, etc.? Are you modeling those behaviors?

Lord, help us to default to our knees, as only You can help us bear Your fruit in life’s little and big moments. We want our children to default to You and Your ways. In Jesus’s name, Amen.