Nothing breaks a parent’s heart more than to see our children make foolish choices that can result in consequences for years to come. But there are some things we can do early on so God doesn’t have to allow more serious consequences later. What are some of those things?

Today’s Readings:

1 Kings 15 & 16
Psalm 69.22-28
Proverbs 17.25-26
John 13.1-20

Parenting, Consequences & Modern-Day Idolatry

Proverbs 17.25-26:

When to Help & When to Get Out of the Way

A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him (v. 25).

Nothing breaks a parent’s heart more than to see our children make foolish choices that can result in consequences for years to come. Nothing we do can guarantee that our children will not make those choices, but our responsibility is to faithfully teach them while they are young. At times, that includes allowing them to suffer the consequences of their actions instead of constantly intervening.

• The child who repeatedly forgets her lunch may need to miss lunch a few times.
• The child who gets in trouble with a teacher needs to know that Mom and Dad will not run to his rescue.
• The teen who gets caught drinking and driving may need to spend a night in jail, instead of being immediately bailed out.
• The son or daughter who brings drugs into the house needs to know that his or her parents will call the police and have them arrested!

By allowing those less serious consequences, we may save our children from progressively more serious ones.

When More Serious Ones Are Needed

But as they get older, if God needs to allow more serious ones, we need to be careful not to get in His way. The Prodigal Son’s father, a type of our Heavenly Father, did not run after his son, he didn’t bail him out of the mess he was in or try to find him a job. He patiently waited. It was in the pigsty that his son, finally, came to his senses (Lk. 15.11-32).

God loves our children more than we do. He knows what each of them (and each of us) needs to come to the end of ourselves. He knows our hearts and He disciplines us when it’s appropriate and for our good (Heb. 12.5-11).

In the course of counseling, I’ve seen too many instances where parents had protected their children over and over from the natural results of their sin and rebellion, only to have God take matters out of their hands, by allowing something that the parents could not fix.

As parents, we need to pray for wisdom and discernment to know when to help and when to lovingly allow consequences to run their course. As hard as it is to see our children suffer those hard consequences, how much more tragic if they are enabled to keep going their own way and never see the need to turn to Christ?

Today’s Other Readings:

1 Kings 15 & 16:

Modern-Day Idolatry

It’s often difficult to understand how Israel could return again and again to idolatry. But like us, they probably rarely made a conscious decision to stop worshiping God and begin worshiping some golden calf. Instead, there was most likely a gradual drifting away, making compromises toward the things of the world, until those things began to look more enticing, even more normal, than the worship of God and His guidelines for their lives.

One of the attractions of pagan idolatry was its inclusion of all kinds of sexual perversion, including male and female temple prostitution, fertility rites, and the use of drugs and other substances to induce so-called spiritual enlightenment.

Today freedom from restraint is just as much an idol as any golden calf. And it comes with the same inducements: the right to partake of every kind of sexual sin and the use of drugs without consequence. People who partake of this kind of pagan religion (make no mistake it is a false religion) are elevated and honored even by our government. And in many cities, our streets and parks have become temples of pagan worship.

But we got here one step at a time, as well. The first step was deciding sexual perversion and drug use were no longer criminal. Next, they became more and more acceptable. Soon those things were just other versions of normal and now rights to be demanded.

As I’ve said before, we are called to love people involved in those things (homosexuality, living together, any kind of sex outside of marriage, abortion, drug use), but we cannot allow them to become acceptable or somehow right in our thinking.

Psalm 69.22-28:

Pieces of the Puzzle

Much of this psalm and others have prophetic, messianic meaning, as well as, the immediate meaning in the life of the psalmist. Verse 25 is quoted in Acts 1.20 referring to Judas. Verses 22 and 23 are quoted in Romans 11 and verse 26 was prophesied in Isaiah about the Messiah—all portions of the great tapestry called Scripture that fit together like the pieces of a puzzle.

John 13.1-20:

Bathing, Foot Washing & Consequences

Here in John 13, Jesus took on the job of the lowest of servants washing His disciples’ dirty, dusty feet. When Peter understandably objected, Jesus told him, “… If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me (v. 8).”

Jesus is our only hope for cleansing from sin, as we come to Him in humility and confession, accepting His forgiveness of all our sins.

Always enthusiastic, Peter responded by saying, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

Jesus said to him, ‘He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean … (v. 10).

After we have been forgiven and cleansed from our sin, we are in right standing with God because we are “in Christ.” But this side of heaven, we will fall short and fail to walk in the freedom from sin that’s ours. So, we need that continual “foot washing” of repentance and forgiveness. Not because we have lost our salvation but because sin messes up our fellowship with God, our peace, and our joy. And just as we should allow the consequences of our children’s sin and rebellion, so will our heavenly Father when necessary.

What About You? Questions to Ponder or Journal:

Do you need some foot washing? Should you go to God and ask for His forgiveness and cleansing in some area?

Do you need to change how you respond to your children’s irresponsible or rebellious choices while they’re still young and the consequences are minor? If you have older children, is there some situation where you need to get out of God’s way?

Coming Up:

In the coming days, we’ll talk about the trouble with America, the importance of godly friends, the cost of doing what’s right, the cure for the curse over our cities, the cost of laziness, and living based on the hope that is within us.

I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss any of them. You might also like to check out our YouTube channel.

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Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥

Note about this post:

I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer. 

A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”

I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.

Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)

I sometimes LINKUP with these blogs.