Have You Told Your Children They Are Not Good Enough?

I do a lot of thinking in two places of my house...in the shower and at the sink. Sometimes it's just me and my thoughts but many times The Lord meets me here. Today he brought to my mind two trips to Target and two different mothers. Both times my children and I were walking along and both mothers had a child with them that was just falling apart at the seams. I smile at both mothers and try to say 'I understand' with my eyes. We've all had bad days and it doesn't help when you have an audience. Both times the mothers looked at me and my children and looked at their own and said something so painful I'll never forget their words, "Look at them! They are acting so well! Don't you want to be like them?!"

My heart breaks at these words. Do these mothers not understand what they just told their children? Do they have any clue how deep that wound will go? They just told their precious child 'You are not good enough.' Does Jesus do that to us? Does he compare us to each other? Does he frown and shake his head that we have not lived up to the standard of the Christian next door? No. He does not put us down he lifts us up. We know we are not worthy of his love and discipline. Does he want us to live in shame of it though? No. He wants us to live in Freedom. 

These children were not failing their mothers. These mothers were failing their children. As I look back I wonder what these mothers would have said if I walked up to them and told them, "You are not as pretty as the woman in aisle 3. Don't you want to be like her ?"

Wouldn't this be equally painful?  Wouldn't this eat her up inside? Even if her soul dismissed the statement, would her spirit ever forget? I think not.

Take heart mothers. Do not fail your children.