My son just deliberately deceived me for the first time today.
My heart is heavy with it. It involved the hiding of cheese so he could have pizza. He knew what he was doing, unfortunately. And after I told him that it made me sad that he'd tricked Mommy, and after I told him he wouldn't be getting mac n' cheese for dinner after all as punishment, and after I've put him down for a nap... I'm still sad.
I'm a big sinner raising little sinners. I know this. It's not like I haven't seen it before in everyone who lives in this house. But its still hard to see more clearly the beginnings of a lifetime of struggle against our fallen human nature.
Yesterday in church, we had a guest speaker. It was Gary Thomas, author of "Sacred Marriage" and "Sacred Parenting." One of the main verses he highlighted was this one:
"We all stumble in many ways."- James 3:2
It's so true. He also said that long ago, when he was giving his brother advice, he said to him, "If you want to serve Jesus, don't get married. It takes a lot of time and energy to be married, and you can do more if you're not. But, if you want to become like Jesus, get married. It is the best way to get acquainted with your sin and learn to be selfless that I know of." (I'm paraphrasing a bit.) The point was that marriage was a labratory to make us more holy by showing us our faults more clearly. And we grow as we struggle to love selflessly as Christ loves us.
We've got a houseful of people, all sinners, who are learning through the upholding hand of Christ, to sin a little less and love like him a little more. But it takes time and the daily friction of living together. Some days it's discouraging, and some days we all feel like overcomers.
So when I'm discouraged like this, I just need to remember how far I've come, how far I've got to go, and that I learned all of it through many struggles and prayers over many years. Seth needs me to discipline him, cry with him when he falls, and cheer him on... because we all need a hand up when we stumble.
1 comment:
Oh! The first lie! It really is traumatic for we mommies who take this sort of thing seriously.
I'm glad you are disciplining right away. I don't know what I was thinking, but I let stuff like that slide early on with my oldest, and we ended up with a pattern that took years to fix.
My second-born doesn't lie. She steals. We are all sinners here, too. :)
Post a Comment