There’s no doubt that parenting is hard. Elisha Beach at The Huffington Post says there are days his kids “push every button, break every rule and ignore every word” he says to them. Rheana Murray at Today tells of the time her 2-year-old son escaped her yard while she breastfed her infant.
Then try to imagine the parents of Chase Martens, the 2-year-old Manitoba boy who drowned after he disappeared from his family home. We can’t imagine the pain they suffered and the blame they couldn’t wash away.
From the outside, it’s easy to use hindsight and criticize, telling how we would have done it better and smarter. Even God expressed a wish for hindsight in Genesis 6:6:
“And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”
We’re not given that option, however. We don’t get a redo when things don’t go according to plan. We can’t close the gate after the fact, bring a child back to life, or recycle our children into people that are better behaved. Our only option is to allow compassion to soothe the jagged reminders of the failures that have battered us.
Ephesians 4:32 raises our standard to the highest level:
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Colossians 3:12-13 encourages us not to take offense but to forgive in the manner of Christ:
“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
Galatians 6:2 is the key to bringing the love of Jesus to the world:
“Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Raising children challenges even the best of parents. Anyone who’s had a child can identify with that. Living the Christian lifestyle is equally challenging. When we falter, really falter, those watching want to tell us how we could have done it better, how we could have avoided the pitfalls that tripped us up.
Let’s try on the compassion of Christ, who said in Luke 23:34:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Jesus’ message was about love and caring and forgiveness and acceptance. He was filled with empathy for the hurting and needy. We cannot afford to be anything less.
When we show compassion instead of criticism, we let Christ flow from our hands unto the world.
Copyright © 2016 MyChurchNotes.net
Originally Published 6-28-16 in Relationships