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Vol. 2001 Issue 11b ~ November - Bonus Article

My three-and-a-half-year-old son, Jack, surprised me the other day. We were walking downstairs, he behind me. He was in a good mood, talking about going on the computer, very happy. Then he muttered the following phrase (and pardon my French, as my grandmother would say, in advance), "Stinky poopy."

Now, I have no idea what he was referring to – and frankly, I didn’t care. I turned around instantly and asked, "What did you say?" (As he knows very clearly the rule in our house – ‘Corcorans’ don’t use words like that – we can use better words’.) Here is where the surprise came – his response: instantaneously, he said, "Nothing". You know that ‘nothing’ – shifty eyes so as not to make contact with mine, said very quickly, hands in the pockets. That is the kind of ‘nothing’ I would have expected from a 7 or 8 year old maybe – but from my baby?!

He lied to me. My son chose to lie to me. He had the choice to come clean – but didn’t. My son willingly chose sin.

Okay, I may sound a bit harsh here. Is it really sin if it’s just a little white lie and no one gets hurt? You better believe it is. It’s sin when my 3-year-old does it, my precious son who can do no wrong (so I thought) and it’s sin when I do it.

This just reminded me what I forget so very often. Just as Jack was a sinner since birth, sin engulfed my soul from infancy as well…just as it did for you. Scary, but true. Sad, but true. Unbelievable, but true - whether we believe it or not. Sin is our natural bent. Human beings are not innately good as most like to believe. We are depraved, with a capacity for good moments.

So do whatever you can to slow the downward spiral of your child’s sin nature. And while you’re at it – prayerfully and diligently work as hard as you can at reversing your own downward spiral.

© Elisabeth K. Corcoran, 2001

Elisabeth K. Corcoran is the author of Calm in My Chaos: Encouragement for a Mom's Weary Soul . This column is original and not excerpted from her book.

Submitted on : 01-Nov-2001