What was intended to be a fun morning and a happy childhood memory turned into another opportunity for my sinful pride to rear its ugly head. Since Matt is younger, I was focusing my time on helping him with the instructions. The first step involved gluing the main parts of the body together first, then nailing them.
As I was helping Matt, Andrew raced ahead. I checked on him, thinking he had carelessly glued the wrong parts together. In an ugly moment, I chewed him out for not paying attention to the instructions and for not being more careful. I thought of it as a teaching moment but really, it was a sermonizing monologue. He meekly took it and kept building the car.A few minutes later, Andrew came back to me with a question about the car. It turned out that I was completely wrong. He had put it together exactly correct, and I am the one who made the mistake and carelessly glued the wrong sides together. What a moment.
As a parent, I think I know the answers for my children. As a pastor, I think I know true biblical parenting. But no matter what I think I know, my implementation is so wickedly sinful, it's embarrassing. I had no recourse but to completely apologize and ask for my son's forgiveness. Thankfully, he is gracious to me and has been every time I have needed to apologize to him. And even more thankfully, God is gracious too.
Though I am older and though I know more about the Bible than my children, I am just as sinful as they are. Maybe worse, because I know so much more and am held accountable to that. I was painfully reminded of the truth that I am just one sinner seeking to train and teach another sinner. Thank God that His glorious Gospel is alive and well and effective in my life daily.
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