Your Example
So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. (Matthew 23:3 NLT)
In Matthew, Jesus is telling his disciples to be careful and on guard against the Pharisees. They were the religious teachers of the law in that day. He told them to practice and obey what they were teaching, truth, but not to follow their example. You see, their actions were not matching their teachings.
As moms, one of our responsibilities is to teach and train our children to know God's Word and then live it. Much more is caught than taught. Many opportunities for teaching arise as we go about our day with them along the way, in our homes, on the way to school, when they hear us having conversations with our friends on the phone, how we act toward those opposed to biblical truth.
My kids hear me often teach them to not forsake truth as the culture might tempt them to do, but handle truth with love and grace as they tell others about Christ and confront lies of culture with truth. Truth is love.
One of mine kindly pointed out to me that I was not so loving in a recent reaction to some news in the Christian world that was in the media this week. I felt some outrage. Texted with friends about frustration. It was all in response to a lack of upholding biblical truth that I was reading about, but were my actions loving and grace filled as I thought about it, texted about it, and dialogued with my friends about it?
Do what she says, but don't follow her example. That would be true about my actions over this particular stance that my kids got to see me process.
It made me thankful for grace. Thankful that my heart was soft enough to be responsive to my child speaking truth to me. I am just often one bad decision away from being a poor teacher of the truth myself. A recent book I read called it being an accidental pharisee. Let's be on guard in the classroom of home where we are the teacher.
Let's pray God's Word:
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the privilege of teaching and training our children. What a high calling. One to be valued and cherished and held faithful to do.
We long for our children to practice what we teach them. How often though that we get so busy and distracted that we aren't practicing what we teach.
Convict us in your grace and mercy and lead us to repentance. Help us to be moms that go to our children and humbly ask for forgiveness when we have done the thing we have taught them not to do.
Give us the grace to be loving teachers of your truth.
Amen
~Terrie Chevaillier
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