“Learning from our children”
Babies are cute. Apart from the smelly nappies and the
intrusions to normal sleeping patterns they are fairly easy going (mostly). But
babies grow up. We want them to. It would be no good for a baby to stay a baby
forever. But in that process of growing up the parent is thrown into the deep
end of shaping the future maturity of little individuals, teaching right from
wrong, respectful behaviours and cultivating wholesome desires (for food,
entertainment etc).
In the process of raising our children, one of the very
fundamental disciplines taught is obedience. Without the one fundamental
attribute instilled in the child, all future attempts at training and equipping
for maturity will fail. While it is the most basic of fundamentals it is the
one that takes the most ongoing work.
We can learn a lot about our own journey of faith as a child
of God from these experiences we have in teaching our own children. For each
one of us the most important thing we can learn as Christians is to be obedient
to what God says. Without it we will never mature; we will continue to make the
same mistakes and we will ultimately end up back in rebellion.
No parent finds a rebellious child attractive. So why do we
think it is OK to ignore God and still think we are going alright. 1 Peter
1:14-15 says, “As obedient children, do
not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called
you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct…” In other words, if you want to grow up and
be like your (heavenly) Father, you need to start by obeying what he says. That
way you will end up being more like him.
We can see the value in teaching our children the right way
to go. But we should also take a lesson from the lessons we are teaching them.
We are all being trained by a heavenly Father who wants us to become mature
people of faith, living lives of purity and power. But to get there we have to
start by doing what our Father says. There is nothing more pleasing than a
child who has learned to be obedient!
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