by Jim Supp, Campus Pastor @ MBC Loudoun

So I have a confession to make: I am not a perfect parent. There – I said it. I feel so much better. Now I know that intuitively you already know this, but I often live under the perceived pressure that as a full-time Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ I need to have the basic categories of life skills wired. I mean, how much credibility would I have as a pastor if I were a crummy husband, father, neighbor…..? So, I often feel I need to ‘perform’ at higher levels than other Christ followers. All too often however, I realize I am just a cracked pot (2 Corinthians 4:7) like everyone else. Like today for example – we were having breakfast and getting ready to move into a time of talking about God’s word. Our family theme for the year of 2011 is “Speak Like Jesus.” In other words, make every effort to speak to others in such a way that it’s as if they were the words of our Lord flowing from us. We were about to read our memory verse together out loud as a family when Natalie jumped in and raced through it before anyone else had a chance to follow along. (I have no idea how she came to be so competitive. Mmhmm.) “Natalie Joy – could you please wait for all of us to join in?” I said, with the best “speak like Jesus” tone I could muster.

Well, that was the end of it. Natalie shut down, put her face in her hands and was unable to be coaxed back into the discussion. “I ruined the day for everyone!!” she declared. Ah, yes. I love it when a Monday morning starts out this way. Seeing the situation as virtually unrecoverable, after unsuccessful attempts at consolation, we said our perfunctory prayer, jumped in the car and headed for school. Breaking the silence after several moments into our journey, I glanced back and said “I love you, sweetheart. I’m sorry we started out this way.” She responded by saying “But Daddy, you had such a mean face.”

So apparently it is possible to “speak like Jesus” (at least I thought my tone was calm and non-condemning) and still do so with a mean face. I guess Daddy needs an additional theme for the year that has something to do with facial expressions. I am looking for a verse to go along with that. But of course it is not really about the words, or the tone, or the facial expressions per se, it’s about the heart that fuels those external realities. And so Daddy’s process of sanctification shows another glaring deficiency.

Fortunately I have discovered that kids are very forgiving, eager to reconcile and move forward. So after a time of prayer for my parenting I did what every Daddy of a 7 year old girl does to reconcile – I spoke her language by making her a card. I drew a picture of the two of us on the front with smiling faces and a big sun up in the corner. Inside I asked for her forgiveness for my mean face and told her she was my most favorite 7 year old in the whole world. I dropped it off at her school and asked them to deliver it to her class, and headed off to, of course, church.

Tomorrow morning we will try it again. Maybe we will all do better at trying to “Speak Like Jesus.” — If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God – 1 Peter 4:11.