Replaying the Falls

Friday, April 25, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

There's reality TV. And then there are the Olympics - the real reality TV - and we got to see them a couple of months ago. I mean, you've got drama, you've got the triple axles on the ice, the amazing jumps on the ski slopes, those gravity-defying flights of the snowboarders. Oh, yeah, and the falls, the bad starts, and crashes.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Replaying the Falls."

I'm fine with showing the good stuff again and again. It's the replays of what they did wrong that bother me. Probably because I've been working with young people and their families for so long. And, over and over, I've seen the damage that's done when parents keep replaying their children's mistakes. Sometimes too seldom replaying what their son or daughter did right.

Consequently, there are lots of young people who know very well what's wrong with them. But they have a hard time thinking what's right with them, so they don't feel like they're worth much. So they act like they're not worth much. You can see it in the friends they choose, the music they listen to, the way they retreat into themselves. The things they'll do for attention. For love. For just a few minutes of feeling better about themselves.

Oh, there's a lot that goes into our feelings of value or worthlessness. And the lack of a parent's affirmation is only part of it. But we moms and dads have life-shaping power like no one else. Our son or daughter's perception of how much we think they're worth is a huge factor in how much they think they're worth.

I read somewhere that we humans need seven positive strokes for every negative we get. Which years ago made me ask, "What's the ratio at our house?" Too often, we use the replays of our kids' shortcomings to somehow get them to change, to do better just to vent our frustrations maybe.

And yet, how many of us still carry in our head those critical, negative words that our parents said over and over to us? They still hurt. They're still part of our adult struggle to feel right about ourselves. What was constantly replayed by our parents has shaped our life. And so it is with our children. It's part of the legacy we leave them, and one it's never too late to change.

That's why this one statement from the Bible went deep into my soul as a parent. It says in Ephesians 4:29, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,..." That's words that tear them down. "...but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs." You've got construction; you've got demolition. My words to my children have been one or the other. As I look in the mirror, I see a guy who has no right to keep replaying anyone's mistakes. Not after the way God has treated me.

I don't need much help seeing where I've blown it. I'm painfully aware of how I've failed; who I've failed even in the past few days. What saves me, literally, is that my Father does not replay all the dark episodes of my life. Of all the people who could nail me for my many sins, God has that undisputed right. He gave me this life. So often, I've simply dissed the One who made me and done what I want to do. And I have defied a sinless, totally holy God.

I would run from Him, except for one thing. What the Bible tells me about Him. And it's our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 130:3, "If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness." What a word! Forgiveness. What an expensive word. Not for me, but for the God I've sinned against, because of what His Son did so I would never meet my sins on Judgment Day.

The Bible says, "He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5-6). My sins removed, never again to be replayed, by a God who loved me so much He would do whatever it took not to lose me. And it took His very best - His Son.

This full pardon from an all-perfect God is within anyone's reach. It's within your reach if you'll take for yourself what His Son, Jesus, died to give you. That's what our website, ANewStory.com, is about. I hope you'll join me there and realize the joy and the freedom of a new beginning in knowing what it is that you will never meet your sins when you stand before God because Jesus paid it all on the cross.