Remembering Grace

Sometimes we find ourselves acting like we think God’s love is conditional.

We fall into thinking that because we deserve the consequences of our sin, we can’t go to God for help through them. Before we know it, we are walking without God and feeling like He doesn’t really like us that much.

When your children are in the wrong, help them name their sin.

Lead them to pray, confessing and asking forgiveness and His mercy and grace for strength to do the right thing next time.

Remind them God has cast their sin away, as far as the east is from the west. He remembers it no more.

Remind them consequences are not given to satisfy your anger or to make you love them again. They are given as a chance for us to repair our wrongdoing and a motivation to choose more wisely the next time temptation strikes. Treat your children lovingly and kindly throughout the consequences, encouraging them as they go. If you are angry with them, tell them you are but that your anger isn’t why they are paying a cost for their wrong-doing.

Make the consequences clear. Give them a beginning and an end. When the requirements have been met, let your children know they’ve fulfilled them.

Make sure they know you forgave them when God did and you, like God, never stopped loving them because they chose foolish behavior.

Draw a picture of something very far away from you. Add something you’ve recently done wrong. If you haven’t asked forgiveness for it yet, do it. Draw a line from this thing you did or said or thought to the far-away spot. In real life, would you still be able to see it?

God allows Himself to no longer see or remember our forgiven sin. Cool. He loves you more than you can know.

This may help you. Challenger Deep is about 7 miles deep. Do you think you could float above this Deep and see an object on the bottom?