As a parent, I feel as though it is my job to instill in my kids how to be a functional human being. Sometimes us parents get it right, and sometimes we don’t. There are moments when they can look at how we interact with others and see Jesus in our example, while there are other moments when we find ourselves giving them the opposite pattern. At best, I hope that the positives outweigh the negatives, and they don’t need too much therapy.
There are also other moments when your kids surprise you. The hope is that there is more good than bad; however, there are no promises. There are no promises that your kids will listen to the good things you teach them. There are no promises that they will choose to live out the good examples that you set rather than the bad. A parent can only hope. The best parents can have a child who lives in a cycle of destructive patterns, and harmful parents can raise a well-adjusted child. Parenting can sometimes be a great mystery.
The other day my wife and I had one of those surprises. When the teacher called us, it left us in tears. Luckily for us, it was positive. The most perplexing is that we don’t know where it came from, why he thought to do what he did, but it was a day we were proud that he was our son. To go further, my son showed me what it means to be like Jesus. I was proud and convicted. First, at his age, I would have never done what he did. I probably would have done the opposite of my son. Secondly, I don’t know if I would have the courage as a grown man to do what my son did.
When the phone rang, and it was my son’s teacher, we thought there was maybe an injury or had an allergic reaction. His teacher went on to tell us that during class, a boy was trying to read a poem to the rest of the class. The boy was struggling greatly. It was embarrassing for him. That is when my son, my beautiful son, who is so much braver and caring than me (he must take after his mother), stood up, walked to the front of the class and stood with the boy to help him read.
Even now, it brings tears to my eyes.
There is something you need to know; my son isn’t a great reader. Just like his dad, he’s in Resource because his reading isn’t up to par.
My son was Jesus to that young boy.
Through weakness, there was a great strength.
In our weakness, we can turn to Christ, who, in ultimate weakness, the cross, demonstrated great strength. When we are weak, we can trust that Jesus is standing there with us.
The Apostle Paul writes to the Chruch in Corinth,
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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 cor 12:9-10
My son reminded me that just as Christ comes to stand with us in our weakness and makes us strong, so we, too, are called to do the same for others. Though we are weak, we can stand with others amid their weakness through the strength found in Christ—relying entirely on His grace to bring us through.
Let’s be Jesus in someone’s weakness today. Let’s learn a lesson from a seven-year-old boy.
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