Blame and choices pt 2

Many of us believe that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. Children have an uncanny ability to understand and grasp this in a way that adults sometimes forget. They can also understand that when you give them choices there are consequences: good, bad, or something in between. Are freedom of choice and God's omnipotence at odds with each other?

You can begin to let children grow "choice muscles" when you give them opportunity to chose between two acceptable possibilities. They'll quickly learn that the consequences are different depending on the choice they make. As a parent or teacher, you make the consequences suitable to the child's age and temperament. They learn to live with the consequences and you, the parent, aren't putting them in a situation that they can't handle. Though you can't back down, sometimes it's appropriate for a parent or teacher to intervene. Sometimes, you have the power to either lighten the consequence or make it harder. A parent or teacher can dictate choices, but it won't accomplish the same thing (in a supervised situation) as letting a child choose and live with the consequences. And it surely doesn't mean you stop loving them.

We establish rules and enforce them but if we don't allow kids opportunities to make choices and live with consequences when they're little, they won't grow the strong choosing muscles they'll need when they become teens and young adults. Even as adults, we can't control every situation or the choices other people make, but we're still responsible for the way we respond and the choices we make. I don't think this is inconsistant with the way God parents us. God looks out for us but I don't know that God always plays it safe with us. Sometimes God intervenes in ways we want Him to, sometimes not. He usually let's us live with the consequences of our actions. But faith says that either way He keeps loving us.