Imagine two families.

Church News. October 26, 2008 Howdy! Imagine two families. The first family has parents who never discipline their children. Oh, they may voice displeasure and even disappointment in their children’s behavior but they love their children so much that they cannot bring themselves to discipline them. The second family is exactly the opposite. The parents are constantly watching their children looking for any opportunity to discipline them. Most people can clearly see that these are two extremes of parenting and neither serve the best interests of the children. What cannot be clearly seen is while we may reject these extremes of parenting our children, many of us accept these extremes when they are applied to how God interacts with his children. Take for instance those who are so assured of their salvation that they live however they want to - confident that like the doting parents, God loves them so much that he overlooks anything and everything they do. Conversely, there are those who are so worried about committing a single sin and possibly losing their salvation and because of it they are crippled with fear. Like the two extremes of parenting, the extreme views of how God deals with his children are incorrect as well. Most of us can see that effective parents both reward and punish their children in an atmosphere of love, understanding that kids will make mistakes but they are still our children. There may be a point in families where children totally reject their parents and live evil lives. As parents we cannot accept that but we are always looking for these wayward children to realize their mistakes and return to us. We are looking and praying for the chance to forgive them. I think this middle ground best portrays how God deals with his children. Study the scriptures and watch how Jesus interacted with Peter for a fuller understanding of this.