Openly Display and Model Repentance and Humility
Let’s face the facts. We are not going to be perfect at mentoring our children. I, myself, have accidentally aligned myself with satan’s vision for my children rather than God’s vision for them. I have been impatient with them. I have been unkind. I have failed at being a loving parent to them. But even in the face of this, this does not make me a bad mother. Failure is not the end. It is an invitation to a new beginning. It also gives me an opportunity to show my children what to do when failures happen.
The best thing we can do for our children is to humble ourselves when we come short of who God has called us to be and to ask them for forgiveness. This shows them that they do not have to be perfect and what to do when mistakes are made. This also is very healing for our children and will work to show your child that you are not a hypocrite, but practice what you preach. Humility displayed towards our children when we mess up is a ministry of its own. It also helps the child to be able to process that THEY were not at fault for what happened and to process their pain in a healthy way that will allow them to move on from this more fully, without holding onto painful baggage.
Satan likes to make us feel like we have one shot at life and that we are hopeless when we make mistakes. God says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). This means that when we mess up, there is hope and we are not stuck there. This is not who we are and we can and will change with God’s help. Failures are not something we should be ashamed of. Times of failures are the best life lessons and times where we have the opportunity to get healing in areas of our lives that we were not aware needed to be healed. They are not places of shame but OPPORTUNITY!
“There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:1 GNT
Pain is actually a gift from God to reveal places where he wants to heal us and make us whole. It is an invitation to come into wholeness with Him. We must be intentional about accepting these invitations and not embracing what Satan tells us in place of those invitations. God will never leave you. God will never abandon you. Pain is not rejection from God. Failure is not even disappointing to God. So with this in mind, we can feel safe humbling ourselves to our children when we mess up and fail as parents, knowing that this is an opportunity to share God’s mercy and the gospel to our children in real life.
Janelle Hood 