Red Handed

Psalm 10:13 (ESV)

Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, “you will not call to account”?

I went down the stairs to get a can of Cream of Chicken soup. I was in charge of lunch and had finally figured out what I was going to make. As I come up the stairs, I hear a bag hit the floor. I get to the top of the stairs and find one of the kids’ bags of Christmas candy on the floor. I quickly pick it up so Sharon and the dog don’t get into it, assuming it had become dislodged as I looked for my can upstairs. After a little bit I wonder where my four-year-old son is…

In the vastness of learning their never seems to be a shortage, in this time, of books on parenting. As young parents find themselves suddenly facing the reality that they hold an immortal soul in their arms, the magnitude of what awaits starts to set in. A culture that has majored on separating parents from their children. Those children now realize they completely neglected truly watching their parents. As the dominate narrative has been one of moving away from home, they find themselves far from the traditional sources of knowledge and wisdom, and turn to the latest “Dr. Spock” with a book on the shelf, or Podcast, or blog. Completely desperate for any answer on how to accomplish that which has been given to them, the rearing of a child. Kelly and I were no different.

In one of the plethora of books Kelly and I read (might have been a blog article) one statement stands out, head and shoulders above the rest. This mother recommended constant prayer that your kids would get caught. The idea being that they would quickly learn they can’t get away with it, that God does see, and that he will enlist others in correcting the problem. As we are in the midst of parenting a child who seems to be constantly looking for trouble, I start to get frustrated, with him always getting in trouble. Having been corrected multiply times and lost the privilege of his Christmas Candy, I would have thought enough. Instead, he gets a hoody for Christmas. I am of the firm belief he attempts to wear the hood up around the house to live in the fantasy that no one will see.

Little boys aren’t the only ones who think that God isn’t watching or that no one will see. As millions turn to internet Porn, from the “safety” of their own homes. As more choose to jeopardize other drivers with a constant eye out for “smokies”. Songs sung with catchy tunes “what happens in Mexico…” or “…Vegas…” As if God does not see. As Christians we must constantly understand that earthy punishment for sin is a blessing, meant to “lead us to repentance”. As our unsaved children and friends continue to persist in sin and evil let us not grow weary of hearing of it. It is God’s blessing for us to help them understand that God does see, he will judge, and they must repent, turn to him, submit to Jesus as Lord, that their judgment might rest on him.

…a little jostling is happening behind the door in the laundry room and sure enough, he stole some candy and was eating it. Yes, my son gets in trouble a lot. And as much as we grow weary with it. It is better than getting away with it. Better than learning the lie that “God does not see”. All of my children suffer under the prayers of their parents that they will get caught, and since there is a God who sees, they do. And you, O’ Christian, suffer under a loving high priest who knows and prays for you to be caught, “with groanings too deep for words.”

CORAM DEO