Like Father, like son...

When my oldest son was about 4 years old, we use to do something called “store training.” I would take him into a toy store and give him specific instructions. “We will stay here as long as you obey this one rule. Don’t pick anything up. If you want to see something, ask and I will give it to you. Then put it down when I ask you to.”

We would stay in the toy store walking up and down the aisles for hours. I always thought it was funny because he would try to walk like me. If I clasped my hands behind my back… he would do the same. If I put my hands in my pockets… he would do the same.

The whole purpose behind the trips to the toy store was to teach him that obedience would be rewarded and that disobedience had consequences. Even at 4 years old, I tried to teach him these truths from a biblical perspective. Obey your heavenly Father and you will escape the consequences of sin.

This was on my mind because I’ve been reading 1st and 2nd Kings for the past few weeks. There are a few key phrases that are mentioned about each one of the kings – one of the phrases that was heartbreaking you see too many times is “He followed in the ways of his father.” Usually, this was talking about the son making the same mistakes as his father.

We are impacted by the things that our parents did. Our lives our truly governed by what we saw when we were growing up, and many of us make the same mistakes that our parents made!

The good news is, it doesn’t have to be that way. There were several kings who broke the cycle. They heard the true word of God and they changed the way that they ruled. They decided that they were going to follow the word of God instead!

No one is perfect. Our parents weren’t. We aren’t. But we can break the cycle and not repeat the same mistakes that we have in the past. Habits can be broken. Lives can be changed.

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone’ a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. (2 Corinthians 5:16-18)

God has entrusted each of us with the responsibility of helping people understand that even though their paternal father or step-father may have messed up, we don’t have to live that same way. Even if our maternal mother or step-mother may have made mistakes – we don’t have to carry that burden.

For people that accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior… we can view them as Christ views them… accepted. Not because of anything that they have done, but because Jesus died for their sins and they are no longer under the curse of sin, but have a new life. (Galatians 3:13-14)

Today… let us struggle to stop seeing ourselves through the eyes of our earthly parents. Let us live like people who are loved by our heavenly Father, and let’s share this love with others so they too can be adopted into this family.