Question
Mr. Robinson, thank you for being specific and concrete with your answer. Please tell me if any of the following items constitute a privilege or possession that you would suggest we take away from our son: family gatherings, church, AWANA bible study, friends’ birthday parties, works of fiction, or karate.
All of the above items could be eliminated, but here is some of our reasoning for why they have remained. I’ve continued to support him going to church with the hope he learns scripture, receives communion, and demonstrates the fruit of the spirit, but I could cut out church and bible study too as needed. He knows his scripture but applying it is another matter. His karate school exercises him hard and teaches him honesty, courtesy, and respect and karate appear to be a more positive short-term influence on his behavior than church. Additionally, traditional martial arts may improve executive function and our son needs the exercise. Last Christmas I kept our son home from the family celebrations and could do that with all the family gatherings, though it makes logistics with 6 children more challenging. We recently started offering him works of fiction for good behavior because we were unable to keep him from taking books from our library and reading them anyway. His good behavior lasts at most two days before reverting to bad behavior. Our son is in 3rd grade and reads quickly and at the 6+ grade level.
