“I can’t get that picture out of my head!”

This was the lament of one of my carpool kids one morning on the way to school.
He was referring to a photo of his sister’s removed tonsils.  Ha, I can only imagine!

What a great teachable moment!

We talked about how what we look at can stick with us and continue to impact us.  He still grimaced as he talked about the picture he had seen a couple of years prior. 

This is the very reason we want to guard our eyes from sinful things and are careful about what we watch on television, movies, video games, and computers.   There are good reasons we parents have rules about such things!  🙂

It was also a great chance to remind them that if anything they know is wrong pops up on a computer to look away quickly and let an adult know immediately!

I couldn’t think of a related Bible verse right away, so I asked if they could.
These aren’t Biblical, but they are wise…

*  One kid said that it reminded her of the preschool song, “Oh, be careful little eyes what you see.”

*  Another one thought of the funny monkeys and their “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” hands.

I loved how those comments contributed to the overall discussion.  It’s always amazing to hear how kids interpret and connect things.

On the way home from school, I followed up with this verse and talked about how our eyes are sticky.  Meaning, we can’t “unsee” things.  The images stick with us and impact our lives.

From Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount –
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
Matthew 6:22-23

Do your kids know that their eyes are sticky?

If you want to know more about teachable moments, how to look for them, and what to do when one happens, see the first few pages of your copy of
Parenting with Scripture: A Topical Guide for Teachable Moments.