Deuteronomy 16:18-20
Appoint judges and
officers, organized by tribes, in all the towns that God, your God, is
giving you. They are to judge the people fairly and honestly. Don’t
twist the law. Don’t play favorites. Don’t take a bribe—a bribe blinds
even a wise person; it undermines the intentions of the best of people.
The
right! The right! Pursue only what’s right! It’s the only way you can
really live and possess the land that God, your God, is giving you.
Scripture
quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002
by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs,
CO. All rights reserved.
I can’t make this stuff up! I found an article at prnewswire.com
that says…” According to a recent online survey, released by Great
American Cookies® and conducted online on the brand's behalf, 94 percent
of parents say they have rewarded their children for good behavior.” In
response to the survey results, this company is launching the
first-ever National Bribe Your Child Week from Aug. 9th – 15th. Parents
can visit a website and download a worksheet to complete with their
child and turn it in at any Great American Cookies® store for a free
cookie.
It would be great if this company had chosen to call the project “National Reward
Your Child Week"…but at the end of the day, hundreds of parents have
just been bribed to participate in this program with the offer of a
“free” cookie. So maybe their choice of words was appropriate. See how
easily we are drawn in?
I utilize a reward system with
Timothy, Zola and Nathan, where I punch numbers on a little card as they
demonstrate “good” behaviors. When all twenty of the numbers on the
card have been punched, the child gets to choose a “prize” from my
basket of goodies…cars, trucks, dinosaurs, small stuffed animals,
crayons and chalk, and more. So far, this has worked well…and it is a
fair way to address each child’s behavior individually. They often plan
which prize they will “work for” next!
Some have said that this amounts to bribery. The children will tell you that they earn these rewards. I can see both sides…but they are
learning valuable lessons about incentives to behave nicely – and
penalties when this doesn’t happen (because they do NOT get a prize if
their card isn’t punched). And I will admit that I sometimes offer a
Life Saver® as a quick and simple “bribe” for positive actions.
Try as we might to ignore or deny this, bribes are a
common “currency” among many adults in our culture. Some are slick
about it and do their best to disguise these as “incentives” or fair
exchanges. But when we drill it down, they are bribes, pure and
simple…and scripture tells us not to operate in these inducements.
This
is more easily said than done, as we are somewhat geared to help those
who help us – and to show them favor. But we must learn to stop
operating in the mode of “what’s in it for me?” and model the teachings
of Jesus as we figure out how we are to show someone else love, grace,
mercy, forgiveness and compassion. When we shift our attitude to
reflect that of our Savior, we are more concerned with pleasing Him than
earning a material prize or the attention and approval of another. We
desire to treat others in such a way that they do what is right because
they want to…not because we paid them to do so.
The
challenge for each of us is to live each and every day with the
intention to serve God with our whole heart and mind…to make sure that
every action is positive and without reproach. Rewards will
follow…but they will be the kind that God ordains – not man – and they
will not be dangled before us as enticements to serve Him. In other
words, don’t look for God to offer you a cookie anytime soon!
©2015 Debbie Robus
No comments:
Post a Comment