9/15/17

Well a couple of crazy weeks have passed since I last wrote, and I need to jump back in!  Parenting my own children and trying to train up the boys here can be tough.  God gives His grace, but He seems to give it in a way I don't always recognize or feel.  When talking to the boys here its funny how easy it is to relate to them.  People ask me all the time "...how can you work with troubled teens? " Or "I don't know how you can put up with the tings they do."  Well, reality is I can't, but god can and does.  My biggest enemy, but also my biggest encourager is the mirror.  When I get frustrated or worn out on a particular student I just go take a quick peek in the mirror and remember how much patience and grace God has shown me, and suddenly it is easy to be kind to the boys, or to go back and make sure a relationship is on good grounds before leaving for the day.  As a parent and a teacher/discipler here, I find myself praying to God a lot for strength to get through a particular conversation or situation, but also to forgive and mend my motives as I am doing my job.  Very often as I am walking the well worn path out to the treehouse I find my self asking for forgiveness for my attitude and motive as I am heading out!  And I haven't even started talking to the kid yet, but I am already asking for forgiveness!  This may seem crazy, but God's Word teaches that he knows the thoughts and intents of the heart..so just why exactly would I try and hide them?  I just ask for forgiveness.  1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  And so He does. By the time I am 5 minutes into a conversation, up in the tree, I want to be there, I am enjoying the task set before me.  As a parent it is literally no different.  Walking to a kid's bedroom to say good night for the third time that night feels like a jail sentence...but is it?  I think not. By the time I arrive at their door and climb in their bed, I am ready to answer their questions, and to pray for them and end the night well, I just need to check my own sin.  Our kids know we sin, they know we are just people too, but they need to see our humility and our ability to ask their forgiveness when needed, and to try and be an open book as far as our relationship with Christ is concerned.

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