Purposeful Parenting #2~ Calling Sin What it Is
Dealing with sin in our lives is essential. We need to deal with our sin constantly and humbly as we are dealing with our children’s sins along side them.
First off I have to share an observation I have noticed… we as Christian parents need to change our verbiage. When punishing, disciplining or correcting our children we need to call it what it is. It is SIN! I have caught myself at doing this. I will call disobedience or disrespect “being naughty.” We need to call it what it is. It is sin. In a culture that doesn’t even believe that sin exists, we need to be using the theologically correct terminology with our children from the time they are tiny toddlers. We need to teach our children what their sin is by pointing it out to them when they sin and apologizing when we do. This is fundamental in teaching our children their need for a Savior.
This can start as early as you would start training a crawling toddler/baby the word naughty. It is a new word to them as well. They learn what “no-no” means because we use the word so frequently. We need to be teaching them what the word sin means too. Sin is an easy word to understand. Then as they grow and you are teaching them the word of God. When you teach them what the wages of sin is and that Jesus is our Savior that saves us from our sin and forgives us. That nothing we do deserves Heaven or forgiveness, but that He freely gives it to those who believe. Your children will see their need for a Savior because they will have an awareness that they sin.
So as we are correcting our children we need to call the sin what it is, not giving it another name. If we are dealing with disrespect, we tell the child something like, “when you talked back to me, that was disrespectful and that is sin.” We need to teach them to see the daily occurrences of sin in their life. Then we need to lead them to the Lord in prayer together, praying with them. Another key to teaching your child to pray to God humbly confessing sin and repenting, is that we need to pray our prayers of repentance and confession of our own sins in front of our children.
That is how faith and humility of sins is caught not taught.
We need to do what we expect from our children, what we hope for in our children’s lives.
Remind them of John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (NIV)
It is not condemning to point out sin to our children, it is teaching them why we need a Savior. If we do not teach them the Why, they may grow up to believe and live like they don’t need Him.
Join me tomorrow, as the kids and I share about the ugly sins we personally face in our home. Transparency in the Tolpin house 101!
May God Be Glorified in Our Mess,
Angie
