One of the most memorable and talked about scenes in the Growing Kids God’s Way video series can be found during Chapter 8 – Character Development: Respect for Peers, Property, and Nature.  The scene shows a shopping cart driven by the wind making its way towards a car and the lady in the driver’s seat of the car can do nothing to stop it.  I was reminded of this GKGW lesson when I read the post that Michael Josephson wrote titled Shopping Carts and Rationalizations.  Anne Marie Ezzo sent me a link to Mr. Josephson’s article a couple of weeks ago and suggested that I review it.

In this article Mr. Josephson not only reminded me of the famous Growing Kids God’s Way video scene, but he reminded me of how these small actions like returning shopping carts can become teachable moments with our children and help build family identity.  A dad in Mr. Josephson’s story was trying to explain to his son why it was important to return the shopping cart.

After a moment, he said, “Son, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who put their carts away and those who don’t. We’re the kind who return their shopping cart. Now go put it back.”

Mr. Josephson goes on to say:

This story isn’t just about grocery carts. It’s about doing the right thing in a world that seems to promote rationalizations and excuses that demean or trivialize simple acts of virtue…People of character do the right thing even if no one else does, not because they think it will change the world but because they refuse to be changed by the world.”

The last line reminds me of a favorite scripture, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (NLT)