Teaching our Kids about Temptation

This weekend, Jason and I finally got around to watching Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Obviously the themes in the Chronicles books and movies go way beyond entertainment; but I thought that the theme in this last movie was so obvious and compelling. Throughout the movie, there is a green mist, or fog that represents temptation for the characters to do something - seek beauty, fame, fortune...things that we all can relate to. It has caused me to think the last couple of days since I watched it - How does that apply to me, and how can I help my kids apply this?

My thought was, how often we discipline our kids for things that they have done as a result of a poor decision, or disobedience. This led to my next thought: If we took a little bit more time to teach our kids about what temptation actually looked like - would they be able to make better decisions, and turn from that kind of behavior? We all know our pal Jiminy Cricket, and have taught our kids about how we all have a conscience, but do we really teach them that they WILL be tempted, and how we can turn from that temptation? It could be anything - temptation to lie, steal, outright disobey....we often punish the behavior without going back to the root where it started - with temptation.

I know I am more motivated to talk these things out with my kids, and remind them that there is always that little window of opportunity to walk away from temptation and make the right choice.

Pastor Frank's message yesterday put an exclamation point on all of these thoughts - check it out at www.albanyfirstassembly.org