I’ve briefly reflected on how I would like Sonja and I to handle counseling our children in regards to God’s gift of love and marriage.  I figure we have another 5-10 years to sort these things out, but we try and model love to them in our own marriage and discuss it when appropriate (as questions arise, as we are reading the Bible, or as things happen in life).

Well….life happened this week.

It started when Nehemiah came and told us that Ahmed, a friendly neighbor boy, offered him “talaata alif wa khumsumiiya”(3,500 cfa, which amounts to about $7 here) if he could have permission to kiss Evangeline.  That led to a visit to Ahmed’s uncle, who agreed with me that such talk was not appropriate and he would “deal with it”.

Three days later, Ali, Nehemiah’s best friend, informed him that Ahmed actually kissed Evangeline that very day, while most of the other boys were busy playing soccer.  Apparently, he quickly grabbed her and gave her a peck on the cheek.  Evangeline, who didn’t mention this before, confirmed it to be true by explaining the exact same incident later to Sonja.

So, I went to grab my shotgu-……just kidding :)  Sonja and I talked about it together.  We didn’t want to overreact to an incident that didn’t appear malicious, but we also didn’t want to sweep it under the rug and pretend that these sorts of incidences don’t affect our children’s lives.  We wanted to use it to teach.  So Sonja sat down with Evangeline to talk about love, marriage, signs of affection, and how we honor God in those things, while protecting our own hearts.  She felt like it went really well.

Me…I sat down with Ahmed on our front veranda.  I told him how much we liked him and how happy we were that he plays with Nehemiah and teaches him language, but if he ever disrespects me as a father and touches my daughter again, he will not be allowed to enter our home.  I encouraged him instead to treat others with honor and respect.  He said he understood. cheap Zoloft

So, our first kissing conversation was a little bit different than we pictured in our heads :)  Any of you have similar stories with your kids?  Here’s Evangeline, never been kissed:

purchase prednisone