Mom Heart Moments #215

If anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father —Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

ONE SUMMER HERE IN COLORADO SPRINGS, several laws were passed that caused an increase in officers assigned to particular areas, as well as the number of tickets they were expected to be handing out. Just at that time, Joy started to learn to drive. She was at the wheel one day when we saw a policeman hiding behind a road sign on the highway.

“Oh, no, Mom, it’s a policeman!” she said. “It makes me sick to my stomach just to see him because the police have been stopping so many people lately. I’m doing all I can just to drive in a straight line, going the right speed, without causing a wreck, but I know I will do something wrong!”

If we speed or drive wildly out of control or run a red light, we should feel guilty and deserve to be caught. We are grateful there are policemen to keep us protected and safe.

But when laws are many and there are eyes everywhere looking for a person to make a mistake, we all feel relieved to get out of the view of potential judgment. So young children will feel afraid of their authorities —their parents —if they feel they are being watched negatively. They will always be wondering what they will do wrong or how they will disappoint or how they will be punished.

Do your children see you as an adversary, waiting for them to fail, to do something wrong, or to make a mistake? Do they fear you may be in their faces every moment, reminding them of these failures and punishing every act of immaturity as well as sin?

Or do your children see you as an advocate, one who comes alongside them, to love and correct gently, to keep them on the path of righteousness, to motivate them toward holiness, to encourage them when they are discouraged, to paint a vision for their lives?