The Bad Guys

Luke ran up to me after church, holding his picture that he had colored. He was very excited to tell me what he had learned. "These people have sin in their hearts! This is a bad guy, this is a bad guy and this is a good guy!" He pointed out the people in the picture he had colored. Some of them had a cross in their hearts and some didn't.

I love his enthusiasm about learning, especially when it comes to the Gospel. I am so thankful for the way his teachers at church and school plant seeds of scripture and truth into his heart. I love that what they are learning in church are the same things I am learning in church. What I am studying with the staff at school are the same things my boys are hearing daily in their classrooms. God uses it to prepare my own heart and mind for the tough questions that are bound to come. I also feel the weight of responsibility we have, as parents, to provide the main foundation for their faith.

With two boys and one man in our home who love superheroes, bad guys and good guys are a regular topic of conversation. I know it's important to help my children understand the truth of the Gospel, but I struggle to know how to explain to them...we're all the bad guys. We all have sin in our hearts. We have no hope of ever being a good guy, apart from Jesus and His finished work on the cross. In Christ Alone. It's such a beautiful truth, full of grace. It is something I can rest in, knowing that it doesn't depend on me or the possibility that circumstances outside my control will get better. Salvation rests in Jesus Christ and what He has already accomplished. Praise Jesus.

Is it strange that, even in being confident of this, it is hard for me to want to tell my kids that they're the bad guys? That we all are...or were? How do I help such young and innocent minds see the beauty and goodness of the Gospel, without crushing them beneath the weight of it?

Again, thankfully, it is not up to me. I will fail them, but God won't. I will not always have the exact words to share with them, but God will speak to their hearts. For today, I will cling to Jesus and trust His provision for me and for these precious little ones He has entrusted to me. I will do everything I can to love them and teach them of our need for Jesus, but I will not do it in my own strength.