Our spiritual essence is frequently discarded when discussing ADHD. By spiritual, I mean that humans are creatures of God who live before Him in all aspects of our lives. We constantly make choices as to whether we will trust God or submit to our own desires. Spiritual problems can be identified by determining if the particular behavior violates God’s law. If it does, then the behavior can be classified as a spiritual problem.

Parents need to exercise caution when their children disobey parental commands. Although the Bible clearly states that children are to obey their parents, what if the child did not understand or remember the instruction? Lack of understanding or

forgetfulness may not be a sin unto itself. Parents should ensure that have given instructions that are clearly understood.

If your child lives on the edge of extreme impulsivity, hyperactivity, and distractibility, you will discover they are also prone to certain sins. ADHD kids seem to specialize in the following spiritual problems: difficulties in persevering when things are difficult or boring, talking before listening, not doing what they say they will do, slowness in learning from past experience, slowness in seeking advice, poor self-control, and acting before thinking. All of these problems are addressed in the widsom literature of the Bible. One such book being the Proverbs of Solomon.

Since no one is born with wisdom, you have hope in prescribing a lifelong pursuit of biblical wisdom. We often think that ADHD is an unchangeable genetic malady. However, when viewed through the lens of wisdom, we can have confidence that change is possible because God gives wisdom to those who seek it. Some thoughts on how to teach wisdom: you don’t have to teach everything all at once, work on one principle at a time, make sure you include yourself as a teachable student, become an expert in the book of Proverbs, and emphasize encouragement and instruction more than punishment.

Does popular secular literature have anything profitable to say about how to deal with ADHD? Yes it does. Here are a few tips: be on the lookout for encouraging strengths, offer instruction in a vivid, visual, concrete way, and memorable way…instead of saying, "clean your room" say "put all the books on this shelf." Provide structure by way of boundaries, guidelines, reminders and limits, have predictable, clear, simple, and written household rules, anticipate and pre-empt problems rather than react to them, develop "to-do" lists with reasonable deadlines, and do the hard task before the easy one.

Parenting a child with ADHD is similar to parenting any other child, i.e., you tailor your biblical instructions to the child’s abilities. ADHD children have God-given strengths and will take more careful observation and some creative teaching. They will pose

unique parenting challenges. Instead of trusting in our own strategies and natural skills, we need to also rely on the insights of the Holy Spirit.

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