Parent - Parenting - Parented

Saturday I found my son hiding partially under his bed, busily engaged in "something". It turns out he was outfitting one of his impossibly old action figures with a new superhero look. He was using permanent marker to color the plastic. Not a bad thing really, except that all the carpet in our town home is white. When I asked him why he was hiding he said he was sure I would not let him do this if he asked. Actually, I’m not all that concerned with the impossibly old action figure. Thanks to my son’s abundant creativity that little guy has been every hero imaginable (and it saves me from buying every hero imaginable!) I explained as much to my son and then addressed the more alarming issue-the hiding.

We’ve always told both our children, anything you have to hide you probably shouldn’t be doing. I was sad that he didn’t just come to me.

"Am I really that strict, mean, unreasonable?"

" No", he says.

"So why didn’t you come to me?"

He tells me all the time I’m the “best Mom in the world”. I know it’s not true, but isn’t it nice to hear? I usually respond with “I’m glad you think so because I really do try.” So I asked him,” if I’m the best Mom in the world, why didn’t you just come to me? You say that, but you didn’t come to me.” (Truly a teaching moment-all parenting skills fully operational.) But much more was going on than that. I heard my own words echoing in my head. How often could God say those very same words to me?

"You say I’m mighty and holy and wonderful, but did you come to Me?"

I was in one of those parent - parenting - being parented moments. No matter how old I am, no matter how old my children are, I will be a parent and a child simultaneously. Very often it’s in the moments of parenting my kids that God reminds me of something within myself that needs to be dealt with. So as I strive to be a faithful, loving parent I’m thankful I have a faithful, loving, perfect Father.

On Display

I seem to find lessons in everyday life. Most often a concept becomes more clear to me or is reinforced by just thinking over things throughout the day. While on a walk this morning I began to blog in my head.

Yesterday was our typically quiet Sunday afternoon. We had the blinds up on the picture window in our bedroom/office/library. Our son was out in the cul de sac playing with a new friend and we were keeping an eye on them. We live in a town home neighborhood with lots of cars and people coming and going. It occurred to me that anyone could walk by our window and see inside. There was nothing too interesting really, just Travis writing a paper at his desk. I was finishing bible study homework and laying out paper for verse packs. But still, we were on display for anyone who chose to look. Do you ever think of your life as being on display? Kind of like the feeling you get when the person in the car next to yours catches you singing or dancing at the red light? In public situations people see our reactions, listen to our words, watch us love (or not) on our kids, or be cute (or icy) with our spouse. It’s a humbling thought really; especially when we have verses that remind us that we are ambassadors for Christ, that we represent His character and unfailing love to this world. Even more humbling are the verses that remind us that God Himself knows our thoughts, knows our words before we speak them. We are ever on display before Him.

One of the beautiful things about grace though, is that in living an honest, transparent, on-display life, God is glorified in our defeats as much as our victories. Through repentance and humility we can use our shortcomings as a springboard for pointing others to His perfect holiness. The places where we fall short are natural segues to declare the fullness of all His attributes. There’s also another important opportunity available to those who willing acknowledge their weaknesses and need for the ongoing, progressive sanctification process. By admitting we’re not perfect we can seize the moment to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. He lived the perfect life (we never can) on our behalf and died in our place to pay the penalty of our sins. We are being conformed into His likeness day by day until the day we die and go to be with Him. So every moment of our lives can be a picture window others can look through as we glorify and proclaim Jesus to our watching world.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:12

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16