Working on those roots...an example...

So here is an example from yesterday:

Wesleygrant hits his sister....I go in to teach the gospel! (Lord help me!...i think this was the 10th time they had been fighting...)

"Wesleygrant, who made you?"
"God"
"why did God make you"...... he doesn't answer, he is angry at me for asking him such a thing...sinner!
"God made you to glorify Him, wg." "He made your hands to love and serve people, not hit people"
"But sally stole my toy!"
"Wg, i know and she was wrong for stealing...but you loved that toy more than you loved sally and so you hit her."
"sally don't steal my toys!!"
"wg, let's try again....you tell sally that we don't steal and come get me if she doesn't listen to you.".... "you run to me and love sally more than your toys".
"but I am so angry!"
"yes, and your heart is prideful." "You can humble your heart and make it right with sally, or mommy will humble your heart for you with a discipline." (i.e. spanking)
"okay...sally, I'm sorry..."
"Wg, that isn't making it right...what do you say?"
"Sally, I was wrong for hitting you...I'm sorry"

things were made right and sally had to do the same apology...but you get the just of the incident...at a later time with wg and i alone, i tell him the real gospel of Jesus...and i do this all day long everywhere we go and sit and lay down. =) now, you can't have a conversation like that with a one year old and probably not a 2 or 3 yr old....we've added to this conversation over the last 2 years...at first it was just you are not loving...tell her you were wrong...and slowly we've added...as WG understands and has reached 4 1/2 yrs and I'm sure it will change over time as they get older.

Let me interpret the gospel here for you:
God has made us to glorify Him, but we can't and don't b/c we are sinners. We can never please God or know or be known by God in our state. We are as pridful as Satan and every sin is rooted in pride. Jesus brought humility and love and grace and boar our sins instead and paid a penalty of death that we owed God for our sin. Now, Jesus is our hope...salvation to those who believe and a stumbling block to those who don't. Jesus shows us what love is and God's word tells us everything we need to know to be a follower of Jesus. We walk humbly or he humbles us. In christ, we can run to God everytime and be loved, helped and corrected through any sin. and in the end, our whole being...is made to glorify God and will glorify God because of Jesus. All our joy is found in Christ alone. There are no other gods. We don't need anythnig but Him. We are to worship Him alone...and not turn our affections on something other than Him. This is a Christ follower.

This must be the story that feeds the roots of our kids lives everyday...don't worry about the fruit....pay much attention on the roots....

Our kids are sinners....Jesus is the only hope....Train them in the wisdom of the gospel...love...humility, not pride....confession of sin andlove Jesus more than anything on earth...and use everything they have and are to glorify him...that is their destiny...they are made to do this...we just help them see that little by little, minute by minute...more later...