TROUBLE AT HOME
So now, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. 2 Samuel 12:10
God warned David about the consequences of his sin in 2 Samuel 12:10. The outworking of this prophecy is recorded in the chapters which follow: Amnon’s rape of Tamar, Absalom’s murder of Amnon, and David’s negligence in disciplining his sons (compare 1 Kings 1:6). In his book, Heart of Anger, Lou Priolo lays out the causes of trouble at home. He lays the problem at the feet of parents. By the way, I recommend Priolo’s book. Too much of David’s problems at home were his own fault. As Dorothy Law Nolte has written, “Children learn what they live.” If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn. If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight, etc. Why? Because more is caught than taught.
It reminds me of the mother who took her young son shopping with her. After a day in the stores, a clerk handed the little boy a lollipop. Mom said, “What do you say?” He looked at her; looked at the lollipop, and then looked at the clerk and said, “Charge it.” We know what he learned shopping with mom! Children are not basically good. Like all people, they, too are separated from God because of their inherited sin and sinful choices. The solution is a God-centered home (not a child-centered home) where the Gospel is central. A child-centered home is where children get what they want. They are allowed to interrupt adults. They are allowed to manipulate, throw tantrums, be rebellious and boss their parents. That promotes a heart of anger which leads to bitterness, stubbornness and rebellion. A God-centered home is where the Gospel is central, children are taught to obey God and their parents; not to interrupt, but to wait and speak at the right time, etc. What kind of home do you have?
Paul Tripp has written: “Parents are more concerned about poor grades than what those grades reveal about the spiritual condition of their child.” Find the rest of what he wrote in Age of Opportunity, pages 115-116.
Ike Graham