Bet you are wondering what in the world I am thinking. Everyone knows the Christian life is really hard. And in some ways, I guess it is. You may not get to be quite as popular, because you opt not to do everything everyone else is doing. You may struggle not to sin. You may even be persecuted in mild or even painfully, fatal ways.
There is another side to the Christian life people rarely discuss. It’s really a shame, because it is one of the biggest earthly benefits of living a Christian lifestyle. Our adult Bible class teacher reminded of this verse on Sunday.
“This is what the Lord says:“Stand at the crossroads and look;ask for the ancient paths,ask where the good way is, and walk in it,and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jeremiah 6:16 NIV)
Wow! Who doesn’t want rest for their souls? Internal peace on earth? We need to explain to our children, this verse gives them the secret to the easy road in life. The road where the negative consequences shrink drastically.
You see if your children really understand the lesson in this verse, they will have learned it is wiser to learn from the mistakes of others than to repeat them yourselves. For example, why does your child have to get drunk and make all sorts of bad choices and also wake up feeling awful the next day? Why can’t he obey the scripture that tells us not to get drunk and heed the warnings of others who have seen or experienced all of the bad things that can happen when you disobey God and get drunk?
This verse has such far reaching implications. Not only can it help your child avoid unnecessary negative consequences, it can help her experience extra positive ones as well. Remember all of those verses about respecting others? Any recruiter will tell you, if two equally qualified candidates come in, the more respectful one will almost always win. The verse about working as working for the Lord? Promotions and raises often go to employees who arrive early, take on extra assignments and work their hardest while on the job.
This may be one of those verses you want to plaster all over the house. Repeat it over and over. Point out the principle when it applies to something that happened to them or someone you know. You want this verse and its principle as firmly in their head as you can possibly get it.
Life in this fallen world will never be perfect and neither will your children. The more they learn to obey this verse though, in many ways, the easier their lives will be.
The added benefit about this verse, is that if your children learn to put it into practice on a regular basis, your parenting job gets easier as well! Not only are they listening to the wisdom in the Bible, but of godly people as well. Their bad choices are minimized and their good choices are multiplied. What parent wouldn’t want to parent children like that?!
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