May 6 - "My child would never..."

When I worked in the judicial system there were certain 'buzz' words that a judge would use to let you know things were serious.  Words like 'recidivism', which means repeated or habitual relapse , as into crime.  Often the word recidivism was used to demonstrate the likelihood of an offender to repeat a crime.  Unfortunately, by running to defend our children so much, we have set them up for recidivism with sin.

Being a PTO officer at both of my sons schools; I have encountered a few parents that are quick to come to the defense of their child, even without getting the whole story.  I understand that as a parent it is important for my child to feel that he/she can come to me with any issue their facing and have confidence that it will be handled to the best of my ability.  The challenge comes, when we decide to take the reigns of righteousness, disregard and look down on everyone else involved.  When we're combative with everyone else and we don't question our child's responsibility in a matter; we give them the perception that they do not have to be held accountable for what they've done.  There are always three sides to every story; yours, mine and the truth!

I thought about a part of scripture that says, "...Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment," because we will often think more highly of our children than we ought.  I remember one day when I went to my 8yr old son's school to pick him up and his teacher told me that he used profanity in class.  She could hardly tell me what he said because she was laughing so much at the fact that he had used it correctly.  Normally I would have been  horrified, but he had used the same word the night before at home (I won't say where he got the word from) and I thought I surely had heard him wrong.  Now I could have come off in a righteous way and took the "not my child" approach, but instead; his teacher and I talked about it productively and enjoyed a laugh at his directness...still hoping it was just random.  *sigh*  We have to make sure that we parent our children in a way that encourages them to accept responsibility for their sin so that he/she does not fall into recidivism.

God, Your word says that if our brother sins seven times in a day, we should rebuke him and if he repents, we should forgive him seven times.  While we're thankful for forgiveness; we declare that our children will not habitual sinners taking grace for granted.  Not my child!  In Jesus name, Amen!!