Discerning Thorough Kind But Firm Leadership

9/5/2022

Morning guys. Had a dream last night: everyone here was staying on an upper floor of a hotel. For some reason, a gaping hole opened up in the floor. All the children thought it was really neat to look over the edge at the ground several stories below. All of our children, even the youngest of them, were crowding around, peeking over the edge or dangling their feet. Two of us were frantically trying to keep the children safe. We were yelling “GET AWAY FROM THE EDGE!!” and we kept snatching children away as they started to tumble over. We kept asking ourselves, “Where are the other parents?!? This hole is just too big for only two of us to be protecting all these children from falling in.”

I woke up and knew that the hole was the internet. Please be vigilant! And not just for your own children.

PLEASE do not “assume” because [our children] are cute and you know their “special” idiosyncrasies that they are not liars and flesh monsters, drawn as much or more by the darkness as the light. This IS how it is, unregenerate in this universe! A MIRACLE is required, and unless that’s already happened, your DISCERNING THOROUGH KIND BUT FIRM LEADERSHIP AT ALL TIMES IS MANDATORY.

Of course leading is not primarily about rules and laws and punishments and micromanaging. Even while they’re young it is the tree of life we lead them to, not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is of course a bit of “schoolmaster,” Galatians chapter 3, but primarily it is the blood and the spirit and the life and the love that calls to their conscience, not just behavior, rules and law. The tree of life invites.

So timely with what we were talking about this morning. Today at work I’m going to show one of the general managers what it takes to really deep clean. I could write 100 pages about it or do it with him. The only thing he will capture is my example in this area, not just my words or check lists.

With our children and all of us in God’s family... this is 1000 times more important.