Only grace

In Instructing a Child's Heart, Tedd and Margy Tripp remind us that "sin cannot be remedied by 'getting one's act together.' Only grace can bring radical heart transformation."

"Our children's needs are the same as our needs. We need the heart transplant surgery that is promised in the grace of the new covenant, 'I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols' (Ezek. 36:25). Our impure thoughts and motives show how profoundly we need cleansing.

Verse 26 continues, 'I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.' What does this mean? Grace brings radical internal change. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Both our children and we need change that is radical and thorough. When a child has gained renewed interest in a toy simply because a brother would like it, that child is exhibiting a stony heart. That hardness of heart will not be melted through anything other than grace. Manipulation of behavior through rewards or punishments will never touch the stony heart. Only grace can change the heart. What encouragement! The very thing that we need is the focal point of God's work."

The Tripps go on to remind us that God also has promised the Holy Spirit to empower us (Ezek. 36:27), for though "we know what we ought to do, we cannot do it apart from grace. We have the assurance that God's grace empowers us."

What a comfort- that we know forgiveness and cleansing and change and empowerment as children of God, and as the earthly parents of these children of God!