Two Kinds of Children
There are two kinds of children in the world—at least according to Santa—naughty and nice. Naughty children get coal in their stockings and nice children get an abundance of toys and beautiful clothes and good stuff like American Girl dolls and gift cards to iTunes.
Every family probably has both kinds of children. There are the good ones who do everything right and obey all the rules and get good grades in school, and the naughty ones who break all the rules and make everybody else miserable. Which one are you? Maybe you are a combination of both!
Does it seem like you are always in trouble?
Do you like to take risks to see what you can get away with?
Do you sometimes do mean things to your brothers or sisters?
Do you fail over and over even though you try to be good?
Do you feel like you will never be good enough?
Do you worry that God is disappointed because you can’t keep the rules?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, that is great news for you because YOU are exactly who Jesus came to save! It’s YOU he wants!
Jesus loves sinners!
Jesus came to save sinners just like you!
IT’S OUTRAGEOUS!
IT’S SCANDALOUS!
IT'S…GRACE.
Maybe you are the child who does everything right.
Do you live to make mom and dad and your teachers proud of you?
Do you hate it when your siblings and your friends break all the rules?
Do you tattle on them so that everyone will know you are the good one?
Do you take pride in being good?
Did you know—that is BAD NEWS?
It is bad news because Jesus did not come to save good people. He did not come to save the righteous, but sinners!
OH NO! WHAT SHOULD YOU DO???
Well, maybe we should take a closer look inside your heart.
Are you proud of yourself because you believe you are better than other kids who break the rules?
Do you spend a lot of time looking in the mirror and admiring yourself?
Do you display all your trophies so you can remind yourself how wonderful you are?
Do you ever gossip about other kids to make yourself look good?
Have you ever excluded somebody on purpose just because you didn’t like them?
Do you secretly gloat when someone else gets punished?
Are there kids at school that you look down on because they are not as smart, pretty, popular, athletic as you?
Are you jealous of kids who are smarter, prettier, more athletic or popular than you?
Let’s see what the Bible has to say about those things:
Pride:
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
Proverbs 11:12 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.
Jealousy and envy and slander:
Mark 7:21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Proverbs 10:18 The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.
Psalm 101:5 Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate.
WOWZERS! If you think you are pretty good and you think you are better than other kids who do really bad things and who get in trouble all the time, do you know what that makes you? A BIG FAT SINNER!
YEA!
WHAT?!?
Remember, Jesus loves sinners!
IT’S OUTRAGEOUS!
IT’S SCANDALOUS!
IT’S…GRACE.
“Let's face it: most of our children believe that God is happy if they're "good for goodness' sake." We've transformed the holy, terrifying, magnificent, and loving God of the Bible into Santa and his elves.”
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