The Perfect Parent

It is such a struggle to be "Jesus" to my children. They are so young, and spend every day with me. That makes it extra important to me that I keep to the straight and narrow. But, like the Apostle Paul says, the things I want to do I don't, and the things I don't want to do I do (I can't remember the exact reference). There are times when it seems that I get it wrong as often as I get it right. And I'm even trying to do right.

It makes me wonder why God puts us under the authority of other imperfect, sinful, human beings at all. I'm an imperfect parent to my children, and my husband is an imperfect authority over me. As a child, my parents were imperfect, and their parents were imperfect. How can I point my children to Jesus when I am so needy myself?

I've thought about this, and I've concluded that it helps to be candid with our children about our faults when we sin against them. I don't think we need to continually list our imperfections for our children to listen to, but just be real with them about how often we miss the mark. We sometimes do the wrong thing just like they do. That's why we all need Jesus: children, parents, spouses, grandparents, everyone. All have sinned. And I think acknowledging this frequently with our children will actually help direct them to Jesus. Jesus shines purer to them when they compare us with Him. Our imperfections make His righteousness appear that much brighter (not that His righteousness can appear brighter than it is -tough to do with an infinity amount of righteousness- but that it SEEMS brighter to the children). And I think we can all agree that no matter how wonderfully or terribly our parents raised us, we still look forward with great anticipation to spending eternity with The Perfect Parent.