Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Contagious

As you may have gathered from my answer to "I am reading..." in yesterday's post, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about parenting philosophies and discipline methods. It's more than a little overwhelming to me, and plenty confusing when people who love the Lord present very contradictory arguments for what is biblical and godly.

I'm having to constantly remind myself that God desires for me to honor Him in how I parent Elijah far more than I desire to honor Him. He promises that if I ask anything in accordance with His will, I can have confidence that He hears and will answer. And He promises to give wisdom to those who ask for it!

Meanwhile, this morning I've been pondering the old adage, "More is caught than taught." I desperately want to "teach, rebuke, correct and train" Elijah in ways that magnify Christ. But I know that far beyond what I say to my son, what I intentionally seek to teach him, he will be learning every moment from the way I act.

I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, reflecting on the idea that "as Elijah grows up under my influence, he will be profoundly affected by what I love." Unfortunately, there's an ominous underside to that concept. I read an article for my class not long ago that expressed the danger in just five simple words:

"False gods are highly catching!"

In an article from the Journal of Biblical Counseling called "Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair," David Powlison explained that the values and desires of people around us "provoke and persuade" us in various ways. Elijah may well be attracted to the Savior I treasure. Or...he may be tempted to fear, trust, crave or take refuge in the various idols his mama bows to.

So again, I beg for mercy, asking God to transform my heart. I want to treasure Him more. I want to forsake the empty, false gods I worship and instead look to the one true and living God. He alone is the source of lasting hope, the One who can be trusted, the Rock of refuge, the awesome and omnipotent Lord to be feared, the most precious Person in all the universe.

2 comments:

Marianne said...

Amy --- I just love your writing! You're such a realistic model of someone who loves Christ and is seeking him, but is truly human.

Thank you for your lovely corner of the internet.

Rebecca said...

You are SUCH a blessing to me! I love reading your posts. I have been going through some real spiritual battles and your posts have been so uplifting. I read through your "my journey" posts and found them so helpful. Your openness and desire to WALK with God and really KNOW HIM echo the sentiments of my heart, too.