Clothe Yourselves

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Colossians 3:12-15

THERE’S A BIG DIFFERENCE between the things our kids do that demonstrate a lack of character or integrity, the things that are outright sin, and the things that simply get on our nerves. Over the course of growing up, our kids often annoy, frustrate, or embarrass us. Sometimes we are tempted to turn minor issues into major conflicts. But too many real battles must be fought for the souls of our kids to turn everything that irritates us into a conflict.

The battle we must fight is with our own unmerciful, unkind, impatient inner person. This is a struggle we must fight by faith, through the gospel, in prayer. As recipients of such tenderhearted mercy, kindness, gentleness, and patience from God, we want to extend tenderhearted mercy, kindness, gentleness, and patience in our words and demeanor to our children.

We want our family to be bound together with a sense of harmony and peace that comes from Christ ruling in our hearts. So as parents who have been shown such abundant grace by our heavenly Father, we extend grace to our children. We make allowance for our children’s faults and forgive them when they offend us. We resist inflicting a “barrage of nitpicking criticism [or] put-downs because they are curious, anxious, excited, helpless, carefree, or absentminded.”

We want our kids to feel securely loved. So as children who have been dearly loved by our heavenly Father, we clothe ourselves in his way of loving.

Lord, as we prepare for another day of doing our part as parents to create a home marked by tenderhearted mercy, forbearance, forgiveness, harmony, and peace, remind us of how generous you have been toward us in all of these ways. Help us to recognize what is worthy of confrontation and correction, and what we should lovingly let go.