What's a mother to do?? Cling to the Gospel and spit in the face of sin and death! Dramatic? Maybe. Neccesary? Definetly! I will not leave my children to their own devices. And why not? What's my motivation? Because God did not let me go. He was MERCIFUL to me; He didn't give me what I deserve which is death. Because I am unworthy to be in His sight. My sin, is not able to thrive in His presence. He is holy; set apart. Instead He showed NO MERCY to Jesus Christ on the cross, sentencing Him to my death, that which He did not deserve. He showed me GRACE; He gave me what I don't deserve, eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And by looking through Jesus at me, I am blameless, without sin and able to be in His presence. THAT is the beauty I desire to see in my home every day.
So how does one do this with their children? By not giving them over to their sin. By looking at what God did for us and teaching them the Gospel through discipline. For our home, sin is recognized and acknowledged by the seperation it causes between myself and Joel and our children (of course it shows itself in rebellion, disobedience, disrespect, etc). They know our expectations and what is required for obedience. When they don't follow through or make the wrong decision, correction is required. There are consequences for their decision, just like sins' consequence for us is death and seperation from God. After this has happened, we pursue redemption with our children. We proceed to redeem them from their choices and reastablish a loving relationship with them; requiring them to admit and confess their sin and ask for forgiveness. Just as God asks us to do to make our relationship right with him. Then it is our responsibility, and desire, as parents to receive them back with loving arms, accepting their forgiveness and seeing them as blameless just as God sees us and rescues us from our sin! We must rescue our children from sin and teach them who the ultimate rescuerer is in their life, Jesus Christ!
My favorite part of discipline (I'm sure you're asking, "there is one??", but hang with me!) is the end. After our daughter has admitted her sin and asked forgiveness and I have forgiven her and told her I love her, we tell her "discipline is over!". She immediately turns from tears to a beaming smile. Sometimes she'll exclaim, "discipline over yay!" and wrap her arms around me. This is my favorite part because not only is the immediate consequence over but I am freeing her from any seperation we experienced. Our relationship is restored and when I look at her, her slate is clean. And she knows! It is truly something to celebrate! In our home, we have established a "no past offense" rule. That is to say, neither Joel or I bring up any past offenses that our daughter has committed. When it is over, it's over. And I believe she recognizes that we forget her sin, it is as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12). We receive her and she receives us! It is beautiful.
This is what Christ did for us on the cross. He proclaimed, "It Is Finished!!" (John 19:30). God no longer saw our sin but beauty from ashes. We were redeemed and can now have a restored relationship with Him if we choose it.
Cling tight to your children and teach them the Gospel always. They will know Him by our love. The powerful love God bestowed on us through the Gospel. And, Lord willing, make Him The Lord and Saviour of their life some day.
