As you read this, I hope that you have a warm cup of coffee and a comfortable chair because some time of relaxed reflection may result. So find your “inner place of thought” and let’s go… I am curious how you respond to your children when you see them fail. Perhaps you are surprised or maybe you think that it reminds you of yourself. Often I hear parents say that they see themselves in their children, and we don’t find this surprising since our DNA speaks heavily of close knit replication. On that first glorious day of birth we say, “Hey, she has my eyes” or “… looks like Grampa’s chin…” These are normal and correct observations that we all make.

What about when we see our child acting in a certain way that we really don’t want to promote, but we dismiss it because we could see ourselves doing the same thing? In the world of psychology we call this “projecting.” Basically, this is placing our own feelings on someone else who is truly uniquely different.

At some point along the road, we will have to step up and reteach the child’s path or watch them struggle with the consequences of our lack of intervention.

So I implore you to prayerfully consider this thought and ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom in this point.

Blessings,

~ Otto & Kristin Getz
Directors of Family & Children’s Ministry

“I readily admit that the Jews are impressively energetic regarding God—but they do everything exactly backwards….After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on His terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it.” (Romans 10:2-3, Message).

As parents, we have a central desire to see our children come to know the Lord and live in a deep, fulfilling relationship with Him. Listening to children speak of the Gospel, I often hear them try and explain the things that they are “doing” to be right with God. It makes me think that we are all prone to falling into the path that the Jews were struggling with….the path of meeting God on our terms and our efforts to impress Him.

“It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God –‘Jesus is my Master’—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it! You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting Him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud; ‘God has set everything right between Him and me!’ “ (Romans 10:9-10, Message).

Otto & Kristin Getz
Directors of Family & Children’s Ministry