Devotional: Mirrors

Genesis 20:2:
And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.


Genesis 26:8:
And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.

I've been reading in Genesis lately, and was struck recently by the fact that Isaac committed the same exact sin as his father by lying about his wife and saying she was his sister.

It points to the fact that our children are watching what we do and they are learning from us.  This takes me up short.  As my children have grown to be teens, sometimes I see things in them that I don't like and then I realize, that very thing has been something that I do!  It's like looking in a mirror.  Horrors!

One remedy is to look to the Word of God...it is a mirror that we need to look into and then let God show us where and how we need to change.

James 1:23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

I need to point out that Christian parents whose children have not turned out the way they brought them up are not always at fault for how they turn out.  I don't want to unnecessarily lay guilt on those who find themselves in this spot.  Our children are sinners like the rest of us and unless God converts them, they may go their own sinful way. 

I am only pointing to the fact that sometimes as we raise our children, we see them saying or doing things that we don't like and sometimes if we step back and look at what we do and say, we might find that they are only mirroring our behavior.  This is most obvious with toddlers.  Let's be mindful of what our bad habits and actions are so that we set good examples for our children.