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My children bring out the worst in me. If there is impatience, wrath, selfishness, or any kind of ugliness in my heart, they have a way of exposing it. I often think that parenting would be so much easier if my children would just obey all of the time! It would save me so much frustration - maybe even a few bulging veins. I would like to correct them only once for each offense and never have that offense repeated.
Better yet, If I could pre-emptively say, "Don't do this or that" and they would never do anthing wrong in the first place!
Pinch.
OK. Daydream is over. I know that because of our sin natures, that is not possible.
Recently, I was thinking more about Christ as a child growing up in a normal family with many children in it. I was wondering how their home must have been different from ours because He was truly a perfect person. The scriptures do not tell us much about His childhood. We hear of a time when he caused some serious frustration in Mary and Joseph by intentionally being left behind on the way home from a trip. Even though His intentions in staying there were pure, scripture tells us that His parents were very upset, so He went home with them and obeyed. (Luke 2:41-52)
As I considered this, I knew that His perfection probably did not deter conflict - it may have been a source of conflict! I thought of how, as an adult, everywhere He went he caused conflict, so I assume that it must have been that way in his childhood home as well.
Better yet, If I could pre-emptively say, "Don't do this or that" and they would never do anthing wrong in the first place!
Pinch.
OK. Daydream is over. I know that because of our sin natures, that is not possible.
Recently, I was thinking more about Christ as a child growing up in a normal family with many children in it. I was wondering how their home must have been different from ours because He was truly a perfect person. The scriptures do not tell us much about His childhood. We hear of a time when he caused some serious frustration in Mary and Joseph by intentionally being left behind on the way home from a trip. Even though His intentions in staying there were pure, scripture tells us that His parents were very upset, so He went home with them and obeyed. (Luke 2:41-52)
As I considered this, I knew that His perfection probably did not deter conflict - it may have been a source of conflict! I thought of how, as an adult, everywhere He went he caused conflict, so I assume that it must have been that way in his childhood home as well.
I thought of how much of my sin that my own children expose, and wondered how much more keenly Mary would have felt this with a child who was the sinless Son of God.
Maybe His family was not so different from ours. Perhaps they struggled with all of the same issues, despite the fact that they had a perfect child.
- - I guess that I am beginning to realize that even perfect children are not the answer to my dilemma!
Maybe if I did not have children I would be calmer. Maybe I would appear to be patient. Perhaps my selfishness would go undetected – but those things would not be gone, they would simply be less open to exposure. I would have fewer opportunities to deal with those things, less of a need to beg God for His grace and mercy and wisdom every single day.
So I guess that I am glad that my children bring out the worst in me!
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