Why I Talk to My Son about Sin
As my toddler and baby twins played on the living room floor, I retold my parents-in-law the most recent antics of disobedience my son had done the day before. They shook their heads while suppressing laughter. They knew these kinds of stories well (they raised my husband, after all).
“Why do they do things like this?” I asked. “Sometimes it just doesn’t make any sense.”
My father-in-law chuckled and replied with one of his famous lines: “They’re sinners!”
Not every act of disobedience can be linked to sin. Sometimes children are simply learning what’s appropriate and what isn’t—like when one of my nine-month-old twins laughs at his older brother and hits him with excitement. But other times, in acts of utter rebellion, the root can be traced to their sin nature.
We don’t like to think of our cute, tiny children as being sinful. As moms, we may feel uncomfortable even telling our children they’re sinners. Why do we want our children to feel guilty? The gospel is beautiful and amazing, and we would much rather tell them about the abundance of grace available to them. Maybe we’re even tempted to simply leave sin out of the conversation altogether.
But what if the uncomfortable, bad news is necessary before our kids (or anyone) can truly understand the good news of the gospel at all?
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