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Melissa and the boys got home from Albuquerque last night. (Side note: They brought me the biggest jar of 505 Green Chili and I can’t wait to dig into that thing tonight!) When we got the boys settled into bed we sat down on the couch and just talked about our families. We both come from amazing families. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve never met another couple who have been raised in such loving, godly families for their entire lives like we’ve been. Being a great family doesn’t exempt you from Romans 3:23. There is just no such thing as a perfect dad or mom, just like there is no such thing as a perfect kid, although my sister was pretty close.

We all pick up things from our parents. Good things and bad things. Ways of cleaning the house, or not cleaning the house. Ways of dealing with conflict, or not dealing with conflict. Attitudes, phrases, hobbies, interests, habits and even sin. Obviously, the sin of the parents (and grandparents and great grandparents and great great grandparents) affects children. We’re products of our environment in both nature and nurture. But whatever your current situation does not determine your destiny…

In the first 3 verses of John 9, Jesus and his disciples come across a homeless, blind beggar. The disciples ask a very obvious question: Who screwed up? Was he born poor and without sight because of his parents blunders in life or did he once have a good life and then made a bunch of poor choices and brought this calamity upon himself?

Jesus sets them straight and gives you and me a very clear directive for our kids. He says, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (emphasis mine) Don’t worry about who sinned! We’ve all sinned. Your parents, your grandparents, everyone! Every single child makes poor choices in life, whether their 5 or 15. But our prayer for our kids, my prayer for my kids is that the work of God would be displayed in their life.

Think about it! You can’t change what family you belong to. You can’t change who your parents are. Parents, we get to raise our kids and train them and teach them discipline in life, but at the end of the day their decisions are just that: their decisions. Why not take the focus off of how we’ve messed up and how they’ve let us down and focus on important stuff: is God working in their life? Do they know how God is working in their life? This is a step in changing our parenting from “sin management” to truly raising them in the knowledge and love of the Lord.

I’m about 100 pages into a great book called Sticky Faith by Kara Powell and Chap Clark. Pick it up. It’s got some good things to say. Thanks for listening to my rant.

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