Wie kann sich in unseren Familien eine Kultur des Bekennens etablieren? Oftmals werden Fehltritte einfach verschwiegen.
I realized that this was the beginning of what will be a lifetime of watching my children sin and then struggle with how to tell me what they did. I see this take place in the church all the time. A young teenage girl sleeps with her boyfriend but can’t bring herself to tell her father. A young man gets drunk with his friends, but he doesn’t confess it to his parents because he is afraid of their reaction. How we respond when our children confess impacts how or if they ever come to understand what the gospel is all about.
… I’m afraid that too often our children feel that when they sin, they must not only run from God but that they also must run from their family. This ethos has been reinforced culturally in many ways, including through television and movie depictions of family life (see, for instance, the rejection of the penguin son by his father in the movie Happy Feet).
Andrew Herbert empfiehlt:
- Keep the lines of communication open.
- Be intentional with your tone of voice, physical posture, and facial expressions. (Ich füge hinzu: Mein äusserer Ausdruck widerspiegelt meine innere Haltung.)
- Model confession and repentance.
- Constantly point your kids to Jesus.
