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Apr 05, 2022 18:00pm

Faith TALK: Why Do We Make Bad Choices?

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(The following is a family devotional guide with suggested questions and scriptures.)

Focus Verse: “Christ gives me the strength to face anything.” -Philippians 4:13

T-Talk About It Topic

Tell me about some ornery things you did as a child. Did you break any rules? Make any bad decisions? Just got plain rebellious?

A-Anchor To The Bible

Since the moment Adam and Eve sinned against God and bit into that apple, sin entered the human race. That just means we are all born with a tendency to question the rules, if not break the rules (Psalm 51:5). Think back to your childhood – how many of you remember saying, “Mine!”, “It’s not my fault!”, or “She did it!” This is our sin nature. That means, plain and simple, we are going to sin. You just told me about some of the wrong choices you made from our Talk Topic above, so you know how easy it is to cross the line! Because we are born sinners, we learn to live life unsaved.

Living life unsaved helps us create some bad habits to avoid getting into trouble, like lying, blaming, or laziness. On top of our bad habits, we are also tempted, or lured away, from right living.

What bad habits or temptations do you all struggle with?

Whether it’s through our own weaknesses to say no to something not good for us or whether it’s the devil tempting us to do wrong, it can be a struggle for all of us!

This is why we need Jesus and His supernatural power in our lives! Getting saved is the beginning of making better decisions. Jesus came to deliver us from being slaves to our sin (Romans 6:20) so that we would accept His free gift of salvation in our lives. By inviting Him to be Lord of our lives and live in our hearts, He gives us the same power that raised people from the dead – we just have to take it! That is some good news indeed! (This is where you can talk about salvation more if you have kiddos who aren’t saved yet!) But just because the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts doesn’t mean we will lose all our bad habits and temptations. They’re still there, they’re still a struggle, but now we have Holy Spirit power to face them and overcome them! When Jesus’ Spirit lives in our hearts, we have the strength to face any bad habit or temptation…we just have to take it.

L-Learn God’s Word

So, next time you’re faced with making a bad decision, take a moment, called a holy pause, to say “Help me, Jesus!” And then wait…the Holy Spirit will lead you to do the right thing, whether it’s facing a situation, walking away from it, or just saying no. Memorizing our Focus Verse Philippians 4:13 can be a powerful way of taking a verse and turning it into a prayer: “Jesus, give me the strength to face this situation.”

K-Keep Each Other Accountable

Here are a few ideas to keep everyone in check with this week’s TALK:

Talk more about the bad habits you and your people have and make goals to overcome the bad habit with a good habit. (For example, if your bad habit is running late to things, a good habit to overcome that would be to start showing up 5 minutes early.) A habit is established by doing something consistently over 60 days. Make a list of one bad habit each person wants to work on – post it up somewhere visible. Hold each other accountable for the next two months to change it into a good habit using Philippians 4:13. Cheer each other on in the moments of indecision or weakness. Pray for each other to use Jesus’ power to overcome this bad habit. Become each other’s cheerleaders to establish this good habit…and then, when the two months is up, repeat the process and see how your family can live out Philippians 4:13!

Motivate each other to memorize our focus verse this week. Write the verse on a chalkboard and display it by the door. Have them say the verse each morning and initial they did so.