Are the challenges you face today problems to be solved or opportunities to see God work? I’m convinced the answer to that question not only determines how you will experience the day, but it also influences the way your children view God. You are the most powerful role model your children have for who God really is and how that reality is played out in daily life.
If you’re like me, you’re painfully aware of your own spiritual pitfalls. When Brad and I discovered we were going to have our first child Brad said, “Well, we should probably start a college fund and a counseling fund ‘cause with us as parents you know they’ll need both!” We laughed nervously and began saving!
How can we be good role models for trusting in the attributes of God when we blow it ourselves? We do it with transparency and we do it one day at a time.
Transparency must be paired with wisdom. You know what your kids can handle. What’s important is for them to see their parents choose to trust in God’s attributes even when their emotions pull them in another direction. We’ve often brought challenging circumstances to our family prayer time. We tell them, “this seems like an impossible problem, but God is bigger than this problem. For God this isn’t a problem at all! This is an opportunity to see Him work in amazing ways!”
Our children have seen scores of “problems” become opportunities to see God’s attributes at work in our lives. If we had shielded them from the difficulties, they would have missed God’s supernatural solutions and their view of Him would be diminished.
One day at a time. The Apostle Peter can be our example. He was a broken man after doing that which he swore he’d never do, deny Jesus…
Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know Me.” And he went away, weeping bitterly. Matthew 26:75 NLT
We all blow it. No one is immune except God Himself. Jesus met with Peter, forgave him and empowered him to lead a spiritual revolution! If God can use a rag tag group of men and women to pass on the message of Jesus to the world, He can use you and me to pass on the message to our kids… flawed as we are!
God has been taken out of the public schools and the public square. He’s been removed or warped beyond recognition in most media outlets. Sadly, God has even been rendered irrelevant in many of our churches. The home provides our first, last and best chance for children to once again embrace the God of the Bible, believe in His Character and Truth, and live in His Power, Love and Grace.
May your day be full of opportunities to see God work!