Daily Archives: August 2, 2013

2 posts

What do your children think the gospel is?

Do your children believe the gospel of Christ is about His performance on the cross? Or do your kids think that the gospel means God will only be pleased if they obey him and obey you? Do your kids think that the gospel means that they must be good so God will love them? Do your kids think that they must be good for you to like them, for you to love them? Your everyday talk teaches your functional understanding of the gospel to your children. Does your everyday talk center upon grace or performance? Listen to your children talk about their understanding of the gospel. They do, you know. You may be thinking that children seldom, if ever, sit […]

Open to reason

“All you care about is your stupid rules! You care about your rules more than you do about me! Thanks, a lot for not caring.” With these words your 14 year-old storms back to her room. Sadly, this exchange is not unusual. Parents want to protect their children. Their teenagers don’t think they need protection. The parents make rules. The teenagers think the rules are arbitrary and say so, well, not in those exact words. The parents feel disrespected. The teenagers feel abandoned. The parents tighten up on the rules. The teenagers are convinced the parents don’t care and don’t want to care. Nothing less than wisdom from above can address this breakdown. The Holy Spirit describes wisdom from above […]