Recently while putting Daniel to bed, I had sternly admonished him to take prayer seriously (he was giggling and saying 4-year-old-type irreverent things), and expressed my dismay that he either wouldn't or couldn't think about things for which to give thanks to God. In the midst of my admonishment and subsequent discipline, I felt the Spirit appropriately reminding me of the Matthew 7:1-5 passage warning against hypocritical judgment.
It's not that I shouldn't correct Daniel - it's proper for me to do so, and to not do so would be a failure in my responsibility to shepherd his heart. However, I should do so with the reality that I - like Daniel - am very much a work in process, and thus my discipline must be one of shared grief and hope that we both are in the process of sanctification, not of indignant self-righteousness.
I don't take prayer seriously enough. The lack of urgency to pray, the duration and frequency of my prayers, and the weak content of my prayers reveals that. I am not nearly as thankful as I should be for what God has given me. I do not acknowledge sufficiently the depths of his grace and blessings. These sins I share with my son - it's just that I'm more savvy at hiding it and faking it.
I think we need to pray for each other.
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