May 21, 2018 / 0 comments

Be Right – Justified Parenting

To have a clear sense of perspective in life is very calming and peaceful. We look at our past and have a pretty good idea of “what I like about my past” and “what I would do differently”. We see our current situation and think “this is what is good” and “here are some things I’d like to change”. Both of those, hopefully, leading us to a clearly focused future.

In our relationship with God, it’s the same. Paul helps us gain a perspective in what it means to be justified in Christ just with in the first few verses of Romans 5. And I think we can apply this to the way we parent our children.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. (1-2)

Here is what happens when we are justified in Christ:

  1. We have peace with God (v. 1)
  2. We have access to God (v. 2)
  3. We have hope in God (v. 2)

Wiersbe (Be Right) says it this way: The peace of God deals with our past as God does not hold our sins against us; access to God covers our present as we can go before God any time; the hope we have in God handles our future as we will share in His glory one day.

So, you may be asking, how does this help me when I parent my kids? Or in the broader sense, when I deal with people?

  1. Offer peace – don’t bring up past faults and sins. Our children have enough pressure from other worldly forces. We should never instill a sense of fear because of their past.
  2. Open access – are we available at all times for our children? Do they find us a safe haven to go when they need us most?
  3. Present hope – do we help them see the big picture, the end result? There is a line in a song by Go Fish entitled Parade, “while I only see what’s goin’ by in front of me
    You see the whole parade”.

We as parents can teach this concept to our kids and help them have peace with their past, offer access to them today and give them hope for their future.

Be blessed and be a blessing!

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