Repicture Obedience at Homeনমুনা

“Honey, that’s enough. Stop jumping off the couch.”

With a wink and smile, my sparkly-eyed three-year-old proceeded to yet again jump onto the piles of pillows and blankets he had laid out on the floor. In my head, I’m thinking, “he’s been inside all day, he isn’t hurting anything (yet), just let it go.” My heart is retorting, “you told him to do something and he did not listen. What is this teaching him?” 

And my body is screaming, “I’ve had a long day, I’m exhausted, and I don’t want to deal with it.”

Hundreds of times a day, we are giving our children opportunities to choose obedience. No parent knows if they are doing it quite right. We get the sense that our parenting is judged by the small glimpses- the snapshots- that others see of our lives. The implication is obedient kids have good parents and disobedient kids have bad ones. We are left at the end of the day wondering if our parenting is making an eternal, generational impact because we are judging ourselves by this impossible metric. The enemy whispers to our heart that our child’s outward action is our fault and our failure. The snapshots of obedience that we see in our children are not worthy of the photo album. Furthermore, the effort it takes sometimes to get one decent picture is challenging and frustrating. 

Let us be free of these impossible metrics. Obedience is the picture of a lifetime- not a moment. Our parenting sets the stage so that God can take that perfect snapshot of “well done” many years down the road. Obedience training is a lot like taking pictures. We have to set the stage, work out the angles, get the right colors, and take many shots to get the perfect picture. 

The good news from God’s word is that it is filled with snapshots of real people obeying in beauty and brokenness. The obedience we see in the Bible is a true reflection of the transformation of our human condition. True obedience is what our Heavenly Father requires. We have the privilege and responsibility of teaching this obedience to our children. 

And He’s with us every step of the journey.

Our obedience in parenting leads our kids to Jesus so that they can obey HIM. We teach our children to obey us so they in turn can obey God. 

That’s the picture worth taking.