Today one of the children memorised a Bible verse and wanted to share that with Peter and myself.

A portion of their memory verse was, “He leads me down the path of righteousness.”

Here follows a conversation I had with that child.

“What does righteousness mean?”  They didn’t know so we had a little conversation about the importance of knowing what the Bible is saying not just memorising it for cleverness sake.  Peter supplied the answer – Doing right.

Next question:

“How does God lead you down the path?” 

Answer –   “By having Him in your heart.”

Conversation:

Just by having him in your heart doesn’t mean you will do right.   You have to listen to Him and make right choices.

Next question:

“If you are going to listen to Jesus, what does that look like when you are playing with your brother?”

When your brother annoys you or frustrates you, if you are listening, you will hear the Holy Spirit speak in your heart.  He will say, speak kindly, be patient.  And you have the choice to listen or not.

Next question:

“What happens if you listen?”

Answer:

“I will be walking down the path of righteousness.”

Conversation:

Yes that is right – you will speak kindly and you will be patient. 

Next question:

“What happens if you don’t listen?”

Answer:

“I will be disobeying God.”

Conclusion:

This is the absolute best answer.  It shows me this child sees that if God’s Word tells us to speak kindly then when we don’t it is sin.  I was glad to hear it put in terms of disobeying God as children brought up in a Christian home can get very familiar with the word “Sin” and it becomes a pat answer.  What is really going on is disobedience and yes, that disobedience is sin.   Once it is labelled as such it can be dealt with as such.