A related shaping issue is how the parents deal with their children’s failures. Childhood is filled with awkward attempts and failed efforts. Immature children learning to master the skills of living in a sophisticated world inevitably make mistakes. The important issue for our purposes is how those failures are
Quite so. The challenge I've encountered in our family and with others, is how to recognize whether a failure is a sin. Biblically, we live life out of hearts tainted by sin. Some take that to mean that every mistake, every thought, every action, every failed attempt is sin.
For example, a three-year-old is at the table and keeps putting his little glass (given to him by a parent) by the edge of the table. The father keeps telling him to put the glass by the top edge of the plate. The toddler does so when the father reprimands him. Then, the toddler accidentally knocks the glass off the table, spilling milk and shattering the glass. The father gets angry, scolds the toddler for disobeying and for making such a big mistake. Is this a failed effort (toddlers have undeveloped memory abilities, immature eye-hand coordination, and problems with impulse control)? Is this sinful rebellion?
Sadly, I've known parents who interpret such things as a direct result of sinful actions and disobedience.
