I have been posting about training our children to have obedient ears. Another important area of child training is training our children out of bad attitudes. It is the fleshly nature to respond with a negative attitude when things are not going just the way we like them. However, if we let our children get away with pouting, putting on a glum look, "packing a sad," maintaining a bad attitude and mood, we set them up for problems in adulthood, and especially in their future marriage. The basis of these attitudes is selfishness and it is selfish attitudes that cause many marriages to fail.
I think of Ahab in 1 Kings 21 who got into a mood because he couldn't get his own way. Because Naboth would not sell his vineyard to him, he went into his house "vexed and sullen," lay down on his bed, turned his face to the wall and wouldn't eat! What a wimp! He obviously was not trained by his parents and so was still acting like a three year old in adulthood.
Deal with bad attitudes in your children immediately. Nip them in the bud! Don't allow them in your home. Of course, you will be showing a good example in your own life. They won't see you putting on "the silent treatment" of getting into a bad attitude where you can cut the atmosphere with a knife!
When raising our children, we never allowed a bad attitude or response. We dealt with it immediately and severely. Today, our children don't know how to get into a bad attitude because they were trained to have a good attitude. This blesses their marriage and therefore they all have the "best of marriages."
Love from Nancy