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Key Bible Verse: His father had never interfered with him by asking, "Why do you behave as you do?" (1 Kings 1:6).
Bonus Reading: Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Suppose you get home from grocery shopping and discover that your six-year-old is eating candy you didn't buy.

It might be tempting to just scold him, send him to his room, and let it go at that. After all, it's only worth a dollar, and you're tired. But you'd be missing an opportunity to turn this "miss" into a second chance.

It would be better to take away any uneaten candy, put your little shoplifter back in the car, drive to the grocery store, hunt up the manager, and tell your kid to apologize. Pay for the candy and deduct it from the child's allowance. Maybe deduct double. Then, call the whole family together and go over the rules and consequences for stealing. Warn the other kids not to tease the culprit or talk about it outside the family. If the culprit is truly sorry, be sure to express your own forgiveness—and God's forgiveness, too.

You've just boxed out the opposition and put your kid in position to rebound—because there will come another time in that grocery store or when he's older and is passing that coveted pair of Nikes or-who knows?

—Ricky Byrdsong in Coaching Your Kids in the Game of Life

What recent opportunity to turn a child's "miss" into a "hit" did you seize—or let slip by?

There is no glory in rebounding—just victory.

—George Raveling (former basketball coach)

Adapted from: Coaching Your Kids in the Game of Life (Bethany, 2000)

For your convenience, Coaching Your Kids in the Game of Life is available in the ChristianityToday.com bookstore.

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Enable me, dear Father, to plant the feet of the children You've entrusted to me firmly in Your paths.

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