The Kids of Integrity Challenge is finished!

Teaching respect

The first Kids of Integrity lesson we've chosen to do is Respect. Respect is a far-reaching discipline that can affect many aspects of life and is one of the cornerstones of developing godly character. Living with boys, although a great joy, can also lead to some challenges. As I mentioned in my previous post, we've been given the responsibility to raise young men, not boys. Part of this challenge is to teach them the basics of life – with one important attribute being respect.

A few recent instances when we've tried to teach respect:

• Lunchtime at Riley's school, it seems, can turn into a bit of a war zone. One rule the teacher has is to not throw things, specifically a certain toy because, as we parents like to say, “It could poke someone’s eye out.” Well, the kids were eating lunch the other day and some of them felt like throwing the “toy of death” around. (We can all see what’s coming, right?) Guess who got hit in the coconut with the toy? Yep, Riley. He came home with a big goose egg on his forehead and was quite upset that the other kids hadn’t listened to the teacher. We told him that not everyone always listens to what they are told, and in this case, some of the kids were disrespecting the teachers' wishes. I don't think that made his head feel any better, but he understood what we were telling him.

• Markus is in kindergarten and likes to play – a lot. Part of his routine is to build cities and houses with the blocks. So, the other day, a few of the kids were building a block house when Markus decided the house needed a window. He figured the best way to make a window was to kick the house where he thought the window should go. Well, we can all guess what happened. I’m sure there was probably some weeping and gnashing of teeth from the other kids. After school, we talked with Markus about how he could have done things better. We asked him if he wanted other kids to kick down stuff he had made, to which he said no. We told him this is what respecting other people is about: doing unto others as you would have them do unto you – another great moment in the Bugg House when we could see the light go on in his head.

There are other areas of respect we are teaching our boys, such as: respect for women and girls, respect for each other and ourselves, and respect for elders and authority. We're pretty excited that we can use the Kids of Integrity resources to help us out when we don't have the exact thought to back up what we are trying to teach or the Bible verse that would most relate to the situation.

Stay tuned for our progress on the Respect lesson!

Tags:

• Respect