What's in your pocket?

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We went to Farm & Fleet a couple nights ago to just get out of the house for a little bit. They have their toys out now for Christmas so we spent a while looking at everything they had getting ideas for our kids as well as trying to figure out some ideas for gifts for the cousins.

My son Baer just wanted us to get something either for him or his cousin Boone. "What about this?" "Can we get this one?" He's three right now and it's hard for him to grasp the concept of "looking" and not "getting". He was loving looking at all the toys but kept asking to get something that night. 

All of a sudden Baer was ready to go. "Let's go, dad!" I thought to myself, "That's strange. Why is he all of a sudden ready to leave the store?" We had been talking about heading out since it was getting close to our kids' bedtime. I looked at him and he had this funny look on his face and he wouldn't totally look me in the eyes. I looked down and saw his hands in his pockets. I asked him, "What do you have in your pocket?" He responded with no words. So I knew something was in there. 

He was going to take a little toy home with him. So I pulled it out and we went and put it back. I had a talk with him about stealing and how we can't take things from the store without paying for them. I know he knew that, but it was a good teaching moment. We talked about how in the Bible God talks about not stealing and I read him the story of the Moses being given commandments to live by from God.

What do you do in those moments where you have the opportunity to teach? Do you embrace it? Do you dismiss it? How well do you do it? I know it's hard. I know I don't do it perfectly, but I'm thankful for the opportunities.

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