Monday, May 31, 2004

Repentance

Again today I read a statement that I often encounter, "this [book, message, etc] is for Christians. If you haven't repented and accepted...". So often we seem to be told that a Christian is someone who has repented and believed the gospel [past tense]. This lacks humility and is a dangerously-incomplete confession of the faith. A Christian is someone who repents and believes [present tense]. Chief sinners, like us, should also be chief repenters.

Tonight during family worship my son showed repentance in a prayer for God to make him kinder to his family. We do struggle with sibling rivalry and with radically different personalities in our children. Tonight it struck me that Kristin and I have been so focused on correcting him that we are not also remembering to enjoy him.

It was refreshing for us to hear him repent tonight, now he needs to hear his parents do the same.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I started the sidebar entry with my children's funny comments and it has helped me to enjoy them more. I know just what you mean. We all spend much time repenting around here, which means there's a whole lot of sinnin' goin' on. But at least we know where we can go and what can be done to make it right!
Suzanne at upsaid.com/tentmakers