Apart from their own sin nature, it’s almost certain that I will be the single biggest influence of sin in my children’s lives.
What do you think? Do you own that?
Here’s why I own that and continue parenting with boldness(instead of throwing in the towel in hopelessness): Christ and His work on the Cross makes all the sin that I commit around and against my children an opportunity for them to see the effective and redemptive work of the Savior in their sinful mother’s life.
Do I sin willingly or without shame and grief: no, no, no. But the grief that accompanies the sin, the confession and repentance and forgiveness that happen, are the primary ways my children will actually be able to see the Gospel with their own eyes.
And I pray that seeing it day after day, reading it in the Word day after day, that they will want to taste it for themselves. And that God will call them to taste and see that He is good. That He is sweeter than honey. That the Person of Jesus is wonderful and terrifying and gracious and uncompromising and more than they could ever exhaustively know.
Yet that they will long for more of the knowledge of God and His Son and will pursue it with the complete devotion of bought and paid for children of the Heavenly Father.
this is good. I like the point of view you come from. May our children see Christ in us and may it point them to Him!
Yes, I think you are correct that I do have the greatest influence over my children’s sin besides their sin nature.
I have opportunity after opportunity to display a tender, broken heart, ready to ask for forgiveness from God and anyone else affected by my sin. A heart that has and is changed by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for my sin.
I too pray that my children may see the work of Christ in me daily and crave it for themselves.
I hear you. I am constantly asking for my kids’ forgiveness and telling them, “That’s why Daddy needs Jesus. I am so thankful that He died on the cross to cover my sin.” They seem to accept this very easily. I know there will be a day that they come to accept it less easily. There will be a day when they ask, “Then why do you keep . . .” That will be a difficult conversation. I hope that at that time my heart will appropriately break and they will be able to see my shame and my longing for holiness. I pray that my defenses will not rise and that I will be able to own the blame that they place on me and once again ask for their forgiveness. Hard stuff!
Last year I listened to a message by a speaker from our teenage kids’ youth camp retreat. He said that as a dad he knows the things that his kids struggle with the most because they are the same things that he struggled/struggles with.
It was very disappointing to realize that this can be so true. On the other hand, I’m grateful to know that when we take the time to pray intensely about these things, that the Lord is faithful to work in them (and us) to overcome them.