So often we expect immediate results from our littles: “Please, stop hitting your brother.”

“We need to tell the truth: Who drew on the couch with Sharpie this time?”

“Don’t slam the door.”

“Stop screaming!”

But, what’s that saying, “Old habits die hard?” It’s true, and it’s also true with us as adults.

After a recent conversation with our daughter, I leaned over and whispered to my husband, “I think we need to take the long game approach here,” as she skipped away.

My husband and I came to the conclusion that thankfully, God’s master plan includes the long game approach with each of us and our sin. Because we physically cannot live a perfect life, He offers grace and life through the blood of Jesus (John 3:16-17).

God is patient, kind, loving, and forgiving. He is genuinely good. Yet, we often let our impatience, and our own sinful nature unleash on our children. We want them to have self-control, yet we struggle with it. We want them to be kind and gentle, but sometimes we treat kindness as a convenience when the circumstances are right. We want them to be forgiving, but struggle to forgive when they make a poor decision. 

As a thirty-something mama, I can honestly say that I still struggle with self-control (especially around junk food), patience, and even kindness when I am feeling overwhelmed, overstimulated, and exhausted.

I have found in my years of parenting that I do fail my children, regularly. I wasn’t meant to be their everything though. God is. My hope is that I am modeling how God loves each of us and how He takes the long-game approach with each of us - extending grace over and over again. We are all works in progress - not just our children.

I pray that when they see me fail them, they will also see me pointing to the cross, teaching them that only Jesus can be their everything. That He has all the answers. That He is the only One who truly embodies love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control all of the time.

I pray that they see the gift God has given us through the cross. I pray that they thank God, for not abandoning us in our sin. I pray they see that He’s a good Father. That He doesn’t walk away when things get hard or punish us when we continue to choose sin over Him. I pray that they see His discipline as love and His heart for each of them.

Let’s show them The Way. Let’s remember that He’s not more repulsed with their sin compared to ours, but maybe He’s using their little sins to sanctify us, to make us more like Him. Let’s continue to “Direct [our] children onto the right path, and [so] when they are older, they will not leave it” (Proverbs 22:6). Let’s take the long-game approach and continue to point them to the cross over and over again.