Fighting for Sinners

Parents usually make the joke that it’s difficult to look at an innocent newborn and believe we are born sinners… until that first manipulative cry or glance.  We even go into the first few years of child-rearing watching and allowing our children to “fail” and “misbehave” and “act-up” still possibly believing they are just “being kids.”  As a Christ-follower, I’m floored by my own disregard for sin some days.  I see it in the broad but not always in the specific.  I know because I was shocked by the language my own child used to describe an incident we had last week.  Cooper missed school (mother’s day out) because we had such a horrific morning together.  When his sisters got home, Sarah said, “Cooper, did you go to school today?”  He replied, “No, too much sinning.”  Now, I’m not sure if he was talking about me or himself, but nonetheless, his word -sin- caught me off guard. He was calling it what it was.

As my kids have gotten older, I’ve watched them move from what looked like making childlike decisions to what looks like being in a battle for their lives.  They’ve gone from kicking and screaming to have their way to buckling at the knees to hold on to a lie they want to keep.  They’ve gone from kids just being kids to being people in need of a Savior.  It no longer looks like a brat (well, sometimes it looks like a brat).  It looks like war.  They’re under attack. Don’t get me wrong.  It’s always been sin. They’ve always been in need of a Savior, but it looks real to me now.  More intense.  I feel compelled now, more than before, to fight for them.

The battle for our children’s lives is serious.  “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12  Don’t run from these words.  They may seem frightening, but they are the reality we have to face.  In facing reality, we are better prepared.  We have to know what we are up against.

These are my experiences (right now).  I wonder if yours are the same.  We are not in control of our children’s salvation.  I pray for God’s Spirit to fall on them.  I pray for Him to give them faith and for them to believe.