Posted in Spiritual Life

We had the blessing of having overnight guests in our home this past weekend.  While we were so thankful to have the opportunity to open our home to these dear, like-minded friends in the Lord (greetings, T. family!), we did not have a chance to properly prepare our children for this experience.  Our seven year old son in particular struggled with having to share his bed with our guests.  I was sorry to see that he was not very kind about the sacrifice he was required to make.  It made me a bit sad--and a bit embarrassed--to have my child behave in this manner.  We spoke to him about it and he was "encouraged" to apologize to our friends and repent of his bad attitude.  Yet, we weren't quite satisfied that he had completely repented.

Yesterday, the children and I were listening to a CD of Scripture verses set to music.  After hearing the song about how "God loves a cheerful giver", my son, with sincere regret and repentance in his voice, admitted that he had not been a cheerful giver.  "I should have been cheerful in sharing my room with the people that came to visit us.  I'm sorry I had a bad attitude.  I'll be willing to share next time."

What a blessing to hear my child confess wrongdoing and commit himself to rightousness in the future.  It is evidence of God's working in his heart.  It gives me so much joy to know that the training and correction my children are receiving is beginning to bear fruit in their lives.  Praise the Lord for little episodes like this one that show that my husband and I need to continue about the business of winning our children's hearts.  Too many Christian parents focus on the ourward behaviour and miss the root issues in the heart attitude.  My husband and I fall short in our child-training in many ways, but the Lord has shown us that having their hearts is the key.  One of our deepest desires is to see our children give their whole hearts to the Lord and allow Him to work in their lives.  They can't go wrong in life if they are following Him completely and if they allow His Word to have it cleansing effect in their hearts.

Glorifying God in our child raising is really about reaching their hearts.  It is about leading them to a point of closeness to the Lord so that He can work in their hearts.  It is about teaching them of the power of Scripture to transform lives.  As He works in their hearts, good behaviour will naturally follow.  Glimpses of this working, like the one I saw in my son yesterday, make all the hard work of taining worth-while.