Repurposing our Scars

After telling her for what felt like the hundredth time, I got down to her eye level.  "Honey, do you know why I keep telling you not to run?  When I was your age I was running on gravel just like this and fell.  I still have a scar."

Finally!  She heard me!  And actually stopped running. 

Reflecting on this later, I realized:  I have lots of scars.  Lots of mistakes--things I wish I'd done differently or not at all.  Opportunities missed.  But just maybe these failures, big and small, can be used for the benefit of my children.

I remember the first time my dad told me how he wished he'd done some things differently, and how he wanted better for me.  This was so much more effective than nagging me to study.  I saw his love for me, and I saw him model humility. 

By using my own mistakes to teach, I can show my kids a couple of things:  that it is honorable to admit our mistakes and, more importantly, that our failures are forgiven.  We are free to acknowledge and to admit that we are sinners--no need to pretend to be perfect.  Jesus meets all our insufficiencies, and died that we might be righteous before God.

Of course, I also hope that my children will not repeat my mistakes, and the best way to prevent that just may be to call their attention to those mistakes so that they may recognize any similar tendencies in their own lives.  And so I seek the grace to recognize my failures and the humility to admit them for the good of those I love.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ... For when I am weak, then I am strong."