Friday, May 18, 2012

Pushing, Pulling, Leading, Drawing

I was thinking about the responsibility we as parents bear in showing Christ to our children.  When they are little, we can carry (take?) them to the feet of Jesus--telling them about Him, taking them to church, praying with them.  (And I'm not saying we "get them saved"--I'm just saying we show them the way, to the best of our ability.)

But as they get older, we have less and less "control" (for lack of a better word) in leading our children to a knowledge of Christ.  Yes, we continue to model and show them, but we cannot push them into Jesus' arms.  In fact, pushing them there will probably push them away from Christ.

We have to lead by example, model the joys of a life in Christ, and trust God to draw them in His timing.

Does that even make sense?  It sounded so eloquent when I was thinking about it, less so when I started typing.  Push back...tell me what you think.

1 comment:

  1. I know exactly what you mean, Gwen. It's very scary. So much easier when they are preschoolers and usually just want to please you and parrot what you have taught them. As they grow up it's a constant challange of loving them and letting them go. It's so humbling. I guess the bottom line is that God just wants us to keep falling on our faces before him, dependant on Him for his grace and wisdom. It's scary but it's an adventure!

    ReplyDelete