How Sin Rocked Our Week

This was not the post I had planned for today.  Really, it wasn't.  Nor did much of this week go as I had planned.  Surprise, right?  My heart is heavy and I  just need to get a few things out there.  Be forewarned, it is heavy stuff.

It actually started two weeks ago.  I am sure many of you saw the announcement that Doug Phillips, the head of Vision Forum, was stepping down from his position due to inappropriate relations with someone other than his spouse.  Rocked. My. Week!  This man has spent countless years in the homeschooling and family-promoting-business.  We have spent countless hours listening to his teaching on how to raise our children and how to be better spouses. We shop his catalog and we watch his documentaries. We were shocked.  We were hurt and disappointed - and friends, we do not even know the man personally.


And then this week things got more personal.  We have been notified that one of our children's past youth pastors has been charged with indecent liberties with minors.  Rocked. My.Week! This is a man we know and loved.  Someone we trusted our girls with.  We were again hurt and disappointed, and left questioning a lot of things.  Praise The Lord, our girls were not directly affected, but there are at least several moms out there that can not say the same thing today.  It breaks my heart.  There have been several times this week when quite honestly all I wanted to do was hide in a closet and wait for Jesus to return.  Instead, I have prayed and cried and prayed some more and tried hard to dialogue all of this out as a family.

Where does one start to try to explain it all to your children?  How do you explain that we all are sinners and just one step away from doing something "just as bad"?  How do explain that we live in a fallen world?

"For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom 2:23)

Let's face it, those are hard things to talk about.  I tend to just want to teach my kid's about God's love and sing Jesus Loves Me.  But that is not all there is to the story.

This week we have been doing a lot of talking about sin and its effect on all of us.  How we all have to choose minute by minute to do the right thing.  How that slippery slope that I have mentioned before affects us all. How Satan can tempt us, but we can ALWAYS choose to do the right thing.  How we must cover ourselves and our family in prayer daily.  How our actions affect more people than we will ever realize.  How we must guard our eyes, ears, and hearts.  How our goal should be to stay as far away from the line as possible, not see how close we can get to it.

How we could easily be THAT person.

And then there is grace.  Yes, I want my kids to remember grace.  That through the tears and confusion and pain, God is still God and He extends grace.  To everyone.  Even, no, especially, sinners - just like us!

We are all just one step away from the line that divides right from wrong.  Lord, may we fight hard to stay on the right side and to help those that have stepped over come back.  May we learn to forgive and give grace as it has been given to us.

"For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves; it is a gift from God..." (Eph. 2:8)

Blessings and prayers for you all, friends!




Linking up with Amy today at Raising Arrows!

Sin's Slippery Slope

This post was written just days after Miley Cyrus showed too much of her body and silliness on national TV. Mind you, I have not seen it so I am taking this on faith from the hundreds of disgusted peoples' posts I have read.   Disgusted...everyone of them.  Not once have I read "Yay Miley, loved that performance!"

But, I digress. I wrote this post a few days after Miley's performance, but it could have been written last week, last month, or last year because this is not a new subject.  She is not the only misguided youth that surprised the world with her behavior.  My oldest said it best...

Sin is a slippery slope.

Miley Cyrus did not just wake up one day and say "Hey, I think I will appear on public television and shock the world today!" 

Let's face it, none of us just wake up one day and choose to sin.  It happens one little step at a time until we are rolling right on down that slippery slope with Miley.  It is not a superstar phenomena.  It is a human phenomena.  And it breaks God's heart.  It should break ours too.

As Christians we believe that there is a line between right and wrong. We tell our kids all of the time that the goal is not to see how close we can get to the line, but instead to keep far away from the line. Unfortunately, our culture doesn't think that way. You know the drill, we tell ourselves, "But mom and dad didn't say this, or didn't say that."  OR, "God didn't really say this or that."  (Sound vaguely familiar? Read Gen. 3:1) We justify ourselves and take one step closer to the line and pretty soon...yep, you guessed it, down the slippery slope we go. 

So what's a mom to do?  What is a teen to do?  What is a person to do?

1- Pray!  And not just for Miley, although she desperately needs our prayers! We all need prayer.  Ask The Lord to show you His will and that you will know what pleases Him and displeases Him and act accordingly!

2- Guide our children.  I hope that girl's daddy pulls her aside and gives her "a talking to." You are never too old to have a chat with your momma and daddy in our house.  We need to stay involved in our kiddos lives, from the time they are born until the time that one of us dies.  That's what parents do.  That's what parents SHOULD do.  Yes, our children do grow up and make their own decisions but we should not stop guiding them just because of a date on a  calendar.

3- Keep our families grounded.  Wealth and fame do NOT make you happy.  Tell your children that.  Teach them that only The Lord brings true joy.

4-   Surround your families with people of similar values and convictions.  One of my favorite things about our friends is that they share our family vision.  Are they just like us?  No.  But they are similar.  They hold us accountable and they challenge us to do better daily.  They love our kids and would get in line to give our kiddos a talking to if they pulled something like Miley.  I love that!  And I love them!

5- Pray!  Did I mention that already?  Just like our kiddos who are tempted to put their toes right against that line (or even one toe over, like a certain 6 year old of mine) we are all tempted.  We all sin. (Romans 3:23) We may not all want to show everything we have to the world but we want to tell just one little white lie, or tell just one secret, or ignore that speed limit just this once, or flirt with that one person, or cheat just this one time.  Regardless of what it is, if it is against the Word of God, it is sin and it is on that slippery slope, just waiting for you to take that step.

Beware.  We are all just one step away from Miley.  It can start with a not so innocent party in the USA and end who-knows-where. No matter how easy it is to shake our head at her and justify our own behavior, we too are only a few steps away.

What are you doing to stay off the slippery slope?

Blessings, Michele and Ashton

This post is linked up with Caroline at The Modest Mom blog!

We are also linked up with Amy at Raising Arrows!