>My Way or His?

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I’ve been reading and studying through 1 Corinthians over the past couple of months. There is so much in this letter, but it’s not very happy. Disunity and sin ran rampant in the Corinthian church. In the very first chapter, Paul establishes a primary root of the disunity – the following after human leadership instead of chasing after God Himself.

As I read in chapter one about the Corinthians and their infighting over whether they were followers of Paul or Apollos, one nagging question kept hitting me. How do I teach my children?

So often I teach my children to follow my rules. To fit into my plan. To do things my way. But, the truth is, it’s not about doing things my way. It’s about learning to do things God’s way. Even little things like household chores should come back to our relationship with Christ. Doing all things to honor and glorify Him. So, if the kids are living daily life my way, following my pattern, what are they learning? Are they learning to follow a human pattern, or is my way constructed such that they learn more and more how to grow their relationship with Christ in daily life?

I wish I could automatically say that my ways, plans, and rules are all structured to point my children to Christ rather than to make carbon copies of myself. But, the truth is that I have preferences about the way our home is run, and my goal is to make sure my children fit into those preferences.

What if I were to work instead to teach my children on a different level? What if I were to show them how the day to day activities of our home can grow their relationship with Christ? What if I were to teach them how to follow His leadership in all they do so that they succeed in glorifying Him even through the mundane?

Recently I have begun to try to make changes in the way I approach teaching my children the simple things of daily life. I don’t want the maintenance of our home to be about my way. I want it to be about glorifying God. Whether it be in daily chores, in interpersonal relationships, or in other regular daily activities – my hope and prayer is that they learn to bring glory to God in every aspect of our lives. I pray that the maintenance of our home becomes less about keeping a house in order and more about growing in our relationship with Christ.