Raising Goldy People

When do kids go from being innocent and making friends with everyone to picking and choosing who they will or won't play with? When do they learn it? Where do they learn it? Some people wanna blame parents, some wanna say their friends and some will say they don't know. The Bible says that children are born selfish and it's our job as parents to raise these small people to be what God has designed them to be. Some times that can be hard! Recently one of our kids have had a "teenager" attitude. There have been several incidents in the last few months. Some have shocked us, my husband and I, some have made us embarrassed, some have left us angry. I go to the Lord in prayer with my concerns. God has a great way of "showing" us things. Thru friends, reading and radio He has shown me how deal with and discipline an older child. THANKFULLY!!!
The most recent thing has left me embarrassed because we did not raise a kid to be mean to others and to leave friends out. We have always told our kids to play with everyone the same and treat them like best friends. We have NEVER let our kids exclude others intentionally! So...that is what happened...they excluded friends and hurt feelings and these friends live far away. We only see them 1-2 times a year. And now we must reconcile feeling and friendships. I am so sad on one hand and seeing the need for a different kind of parenting. On the other hand I am glad it was caught RIGHT AWAY so we could deal with it! A new season of child rearing if you will. Don't worry! We have disciplined this child accordingly and explained that Jesus does not want us to treat others this way. We know that the Lord wants us to love our neighbor! Change is comin' 'round!!!