“It wasn’t my fault!” This one sentence from your children can test every bit of godly patience you have managed to acquire in a lifetime. Why? Because it is often followed by a long list of excuses – most of which are just ridiculous.
The reality is your child made a choice – probably not a great one from his or her response. The “it’s not my fault conversation” is merely an attempt to wiggle out of personal responsibility and consequences.
Sadly, we live in a world that actually encourages people to define themselves by their victimhood. While some people actually are the victims of crimes, manipulation and the evil actions of others, many are the victims of their own poor choices. Encouraging them to have a lifelong victim mentality is not in anyone’s best interest.
When I was in school and worried about a test, my parents would usually say, “Just do your best.” I knew they meant study, get help from my teacher if I needed it and try to answer the test questions in the best way I knew how to do. No one called this being a perfectionist or worried about our mental health.
Every generation has its version of “spiritualists”. Some claim to read palms or tea leaves. Others report talking to dead people or getting “wisdom” from the spirit world. Some claim to practice magic – or “white” magic if they don’t want to appear sinister. God clearly forbade his people in the Old Testament to deal with those who claimed to interact with this “spiritual” realm.
One of the topics rarely discussed in Christian parenting is how to help your kids move from merely copying your faith to making it their own personal faith. A way to do that is to encourage them to move from just learning the facts in the Bible to deeper thinking about who God is and what He wants from them and for them.