A quote from, "Counsel from the Cross," p.159.
"Parents who forget that they are law breakers expect their children to keep the law and to make them look good. They expect children who exhibit exemplary respect and self-discipline. Such parents are self-righteous and proud, and all too often they put confidence in themselves, their ability to obey God, and their methodology for extracting obedience from their children. They forget that the Lord didn't save or bless them because they were law keepers, but, rather, because they weren't."
"Although they may know they have failed to keep the law - loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and their neighbor as themselves - they give their children the law (or house rules) and expect perfect compliance the first time and every time, with a happy heart. Such parents are harsh and impatient and tempted to anger when their children fail. Although they might know the law doesn't change the heart (and is, in fact, a ministry of death [2 Cor.3:7]), they expect the law to change the hearts of their children. They forget that they have been adopted and brought into the family, not only as those who misunderstood or slipped up from time to time, but as defiant rebels. Have parents consistently obeyed God the first time and every time, with a happy heart? Children need what parents need - the Gospel. Certainly children need to learn God's law and to have house rules to follow, but gospel-oriented parents give the law to show children their need for a Savior, not to make them obedient."
Wow, I surely do have a long way to go in learning how to apply the Gospel to parenting!
Labels: children, Gospel, obedience, parent, parenting
