Model the Gospel for your children

The other day, my daughters and I were on a mission to clean and declutter our house. It went in pretty routine fashion: I give the orders, the girls receive their tasks while I work on my own project. Simple enough right? 

My eldest daughter Ruth loves details. She wants to know the whole gameplan: what goes where, why it goes there, and who is going to put it there. She wants to know my intentions and desires, all so that she could do it exactly the way I want. Usually, this is a great thing. That particular morning however, was not a typical morning. I was running on about 4 hours of sleep because I was with her all evening dealing with nightmares. Somehow, she woke up with a whole lot more vigor than I had.

After about a dozen questions, I snapped. In my head, I couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t just clean her room. It was something we’d done hundreds of times! “Ruth, please just clean your room like I asked you to!” She responded with a quiet, “ok”. I walk away and tend to my own project that I was cleaning. 

A couple of minutes later, she approaches me teary-eyed and says, “Daddy, you were not being very patient with me. You didn’t speak very kindly to me when I was asking questions. I didn’t understand what you wanted us to clean and I was just asking questions so that I could understand.” My heart sank and my stomach felt that gut punch. She was right. I had two choices: 1) I could hold doubledown on my pride and say something along the lines of, “How do you not know what to clean?! Just clean what you see is messy!”  2) I could listen to the Holy Spirit and humble myself to my daughter.

Thankfully, I chose the latter. I repented and said, “Ruth, you are right. I was not being very patient and I did not speak very kindly to you. You were right in asking questions about what you didn’t understand. I’m sorry for taking my anger out on you. Daddy was wrong here.” She forgave me and within minutes, we were smiling and laughing again. I’ve often found that children are more quick to forgive than adults are. 

Now, don’t go giving me flowers for how I handled that. If anything, that shows a little more of my tendency to give in to my flesh. I do want to point out that conversations like that model confession, repentance, and forgiveness. It allows your children to understand what Jesus did for us just a little bit better. 

1 John 1:9 says,” If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Model that for your children. Let your children know that daddy is also a sinner in need of forgiveness. Jesus is still changing (sanctifying) daddy also and Jesus is the authority. Confess your sins to them and to God and receive forgiveness. When they sin against you, and they will, walk them through the process also. We are not perfect parents and our children are not perfect children. Thankfully, God is a God of mercy and we get to try again and again.

Lamentations 3:22-23

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Friends, I pray that today’s reflection encourages you to create an environment in your home where the Gospel can be modeled daily. I also pray that it would leave you even more grateful for Christ’s forgiveness. I leave you with Colossians 3:12-13.

12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Blessings


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