Surprise – Your kids are sinners!

In his book Grace Based Parenting, Tim Kimmel contrasts a legalistic approach to moral training to a grace based approach. He writes:

“Your children’s propensity toward sin shouldn’t surprise you; it shouldn’t threaten you; and it shouldn’t even really bother you. You know you’ve given birth to sinners, children just like parents who sired them. You realize your children have a bent toward selfishness, stubbornness, and lawlessness- exactly the kind of people Christ loves and for whom He died. By acknowledging your children’s bent toward sin from the outset, you can encourage your children to struggle with their sin out in the open where you can talk about it and direct them to the power of Christ.”
(Tim Kimmel, Grace Based Parenting, 2004, 218.)