a little bit of comfort on a hard day....
.... this morning marked one of my biggest parenting failures yet. I won't go into the morbid and gross details, but I will tell you it was U.G.L.Y. However, it did lend itself to a frank and good discussion with my daughter on sin - hers and mine - and our desperate need for Christ daily. So, all was not lost. But, I still wished we could have accomplished the great discussion without the ugliness it took to get us there today.
It's interesting that there was so much sin flowing in our home this morning. Our catechism question for the week is #29 "What is sin?" (For those who don't know: Sin is any lack of conformity to, or transgression of, the law of God.) We've been discussing what "lack of conformity to" and "trangression of" are. Today, during our post-incident discussion, I callled what we'd each done sin for the first time. I really don't think I've ever told Emory she was in sin. I've told her she is wrong, made a poor or foolish choice, or just plain disobedient.
It went well. She even stopped me at one point to tell me we needed to confess our sin before we sleep tonight to get rid of the sin in the camp. That is a reference to the battle of Ai that Israel lost because of Achan's "hidden" sin. (Thank you Jamie Soles!) So, I feel comforted that she was really listening.
While she has bounced back, I've nursed my wound most of the day. "How could I have treated her that way?" and, "Will I ever be able to please the Lord in my parenting?" has rung through my mind most of the morning. During nap time, I switched on a sermon I've been meaning to listen to. The pastor was preaching on grace and obedience and was so what I needed to hear today. The following really had my number, "We do not just have the gifts of God, we have the Giver Himself."
And praise God that we do!
It's interesting that there was so much sin flowing in our home this morning. Our catechism question for the week is #29 "What is sin?" (For those who don't know: Sin is any lack of conformity to, or transgression of, the law of God.) We've been discussing what "lack of conformity to" and "trangression of" are. Today, during our post-incident discussion, I callled what we'd each done sin for the first time. I really don't think I've ever told Emory she was in sin. I've told her she is wrong, made a poor or foolish choice, or just plain disobedient.
It went well. She even stopped me at one point to tell me we needed to confess our sin before we sleep tonight to get rid of the sin in the camp. That is a reference to the battle of Ai that Israel lost because of Achan's "hidden" sin. (Thank you Jamie Soles!) So, I feel comforted that she was really listening.
While she has bounced back, I've nursed my wound most of the day. "How could I have treated her that way?" and, "Will I ever be able to please the Lord in my parenting?" has rung through my mind most of the morning. During nap time, I switched on a sermon I've been meaning to listen to. The pastor was preaching on grace and obedience and was so what I needed to hear today. The following really had my number, "We do not just have the gifts of God, we have the Giver Himself."
And praise God that we do!
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