Amazing Grace

Ignoring trespassing signs can  be serious business. One teen fisherman and his friend learned this the hard way. They crossed over onto private property, noticing but choosing to ignore the warning signs. The boys had a great time catching and releasing the fish. The neighborhood pond was very well stocked!

Then, the game warden arrived.

OOPS.

The officer had it in his power to let the young men off with a warning but he didn't. He chose to write a ticket.

The one who holds the power is the one who decides how to implement it. 
Maybe if the boys had a relationship with this man, he may have given them a pass. They didn't. So he didn't.

No mercy. No grace.

Personally I have tossed my line into the water when I know I shouldn't. I am also guilty of ignoring the warning sings. John Newton says, "I am a great sinner in need of a great savior." I am in the same boat.

What if I got what I deserved? 

Punishment. Condemnation.

But instead I get what I don't deserve.

Mercy. Grace.

I can't earn grace. I can't expect mercy. But what I do have is a relationship with the one who lived the life I should have lived and died the death I should have died. He is the authority and judge.

I am thankful that the one who judges me is also the one who loves me. I'm thankful for the mercy and grace I have received.

As a mom, I try and remember God's perfect balance between justice and mercy, and truth and grace. There are times I may institute a more severe sentence for trespasses than necessary or let someone off the hook (so to speak) when it would have been wiser to implement a consequence. In the case of the fisherman, they would have learned the lesson without the big penalty.

In wrath remember mercy. 

Habakkuk 3:2

Have there been times in your parenting where you doled out a deserved yet bigger punishment than necessary? Or when you needed to reinforce a life lesson and you let it go?  When have you been able to show and teach grace and mercy in your home without forgetting about truth and justice?

By,
Lori Wildenberg
Contact Lori for your next event.
If you liked this blog you may also want to subscribe to http://www.1Corinthians13Parenting.com

Does your family celebrate Advent? If so, my 1 Corinthians 13 Parenting ministry team is offering a FREE Advent Guide for subscribers. Click here to subscribe. 

Not a Snot

"Our Father 

Who art in heaven,

 Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. 

Lead a snot into temptation..."

What? Yep... as a child, that's how Lynn, a friend of mine, prayed the Lord's prayer. In a way it makes a little sense, right?  Go ahead God! Let those snots have it! 

Our sense of fairness and justice is satisfied when the bad guys get caught and are punished. 

Our kids don't have much problem figuring out the fairness factor. That tends to make sense. But the ideas of grace and mercy are much more difficult to comprehend and extend. 

Grace and mercy. Unmerited favor, freely given combined with compassion and kindness. For example, if you (by you I really mean me) deserve a speeding ticket but get a warning instead...that is mercy. (I just got some of that mercy recently.) Or if one of my kids takes care of my typical morning routine of feeding the dog and unloading the dishwasher, I just got graced!

So..how do we help our children learn and embrace the concepts of grace and mercy? What does it look like in a family? 

Talk about it and show it.

 Grace is proactive. Showing favor-even when it isn't earned. Loving your child when he's a little snotty. Mercy responds to an offense a child committed with training rather than punishment. Rather than grounding him for life, have him restate his concern with respect. 

Of course it's important to balance grace and mercy with fairness and justice. Without justice, we can end up with cheap grace. 

Avoid tipping the scales to one side or the other. 

And..as a family pray for that "snot"and show him a little amazing grace!

"But deliver us from evil.

for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever." 

Amen

  NOTE: I took this photo in Jerusalem at the Church of the Nations on the Mount of Olives. The church has the Lord's Prayer written in 170 languages! Here it is written in Ethiopian.