The kids and I have been doing a study for quite some time now on being contentious vs. being a peacemaker.  We have been going through the contention chapter in For Instruction in Righteousness and are now going through the Brother Offended Checklist by the same author.  What a great lesson for every Christian!

I wanted to share a with you the discussion we had the other morning because it was so good.  We started off with our regular Bible study where we are just beginning our 3rd quarter and the theme for this quarter is 'fear of the Lord".  We will be going through Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. So the first thing we did was discuss what is the meaning of wisdom and how is it different from knowledge. I explained to the kids that wisdom is the right use of knowledge, in other words when they know from the Bible that disobedience is wrong then they are using wisdom when they choose to obey. Well we finished up that discussion and began our contention study.  The kids were able to make the connection from the first lesson to the 2nd by relating that the Bible wants us to seek to be peacemakers and not to repay evil for evil. They decided that they are using wisdom when they repay evil with good and are being foolish when they repay evil with evil. I love when they make these connections! We discussed further that sometimes we just have to walk away when others are not being kind and loving- that it is wisdom to let it be their problem with sin that they are accountable to God for, but it is foolishness to make it our problem by sinning also. This seemed to be a simplified explanation that my kids could relate to their life easily because when my husband got home from work and was telling me about a situation he had to deal with at work my 7yo spoke up saying "Dad, it's just like we learned this morning- if they want to sin let it be their problem, don't make it yours too by sinning also!" Yes- this was a proud moment for mommy who gave her son a high five and then of course had to clarify that Daddy is supervisor meaning he has to take care of these problems and was not sinning himself in this particular situationand that furthermore it is prideful for him to instruct his father, but thank you thank you for paying attention! ( :