10 Things of Bad Parenting…
It discredits the taboo that only bad parents have children that lie.
Luke 22:54-62
Reference: A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied. (Luke 22:58 NIV)
Explore: I recently read a fabulous article that was incredibly reassuring: 10 Things I Thought Were Caused by Bad Parenting… Before I Had My Own Kids. My husband actually sent it to me as I think he had found it resonated with him too.
Annie Reneau highlights some not so pleasant attributes of children, but explains that it’s not because of the parents lack of ability. It’s because they are children!
While I won’t go through the whole article here, I will focus on one of the points… Fibbing.
6. Fibbing. One of our kids was born habitually honest. I was that way as a kid, too. I remember the one time I lied to my mother, and I still feel ashamed about it. But our other two have gone through the normal little kid fibbing stage, despite our consistently talking about the importance of truthfulness from very early on.
I couldn’t believe it the first time one of my kids lied to my face. How do you even do that? They say it’s a sign of intelligence. Sure, let’s go with that. It’s better than the “…my kid’s gonna be a sociopath” line of thinking.
All our kids have been fibbers. At least Reneau only had 2/3!
She doesn’t excuse the lying or say you don’t need to set consequences for the fibs, but it does discredit the taboo that only bad parents have children that lie.
Application: I wonder if Jesus was shattered when Peter lied three times about his association with Him. Or was He more like a parent after reading Reneau’s article – disappointed but not taking it personally?
Maybe verbalizing what was going to happen wasn’t just a learning for Peter, but was preparation for Jesus in the hurt that was to take place. Before now I’ve always seen this from Peter’s perspective, but Jesus was really like the parent teaching a child.
Thankfully for Peter, Jesus is a gracious parent and God went on to allow some great opportunities for him. We too can receive that from Christ.
We may not have outright disowned Him, but we have all done things that were far from the perfect life God calls us to. May this be a great reminder that God does not reject us but forgives all our failings, just like a parent does for a young child.
Prayer: Lord, forgive me for my transgressions. May I learn from my mistakes and strive to not disappoint You. Amen.
What past failing are you holding onto?
This article was written by Linda Bailey
Linda started theological studies in 1999 in Australia. After working for ten years in various church ministries, she now works as the breakfast producer at 89.9 LightFM - the Christian radio station in Melbourne, Australia. She writes blogs every day about passages she is currently reading in the Bible. Follow her on Google Plus +Linda Bailey or Facebook by clicking the like button on the right of this page.