Transcript
I have parents who talk to me all the time about their struggle with, "When should I enforce law and when should I give grace?" And the problem with the question is it treats God's law and God's grace as two opposing forces. Think of biblical history.
Think When the Law Was Given
Think when the law was given. God had redeemed His children out of captivity, but they didn't know how to be the children of God. They didn't know how to walk with God. They didn't know how to live this new life of freedom that they were given, so God gave them His law. Think about this. His law was grace. It was an act of beautiful, gorgeous, loving grace that God would give His law to His children and so, grace is a way of bringing the guidance and regulating authority of God's wisdom to my children.
Grace is not suspending the law. Grace is not rejecting authority. Grace is not walking away from the need of my children to have boundaries in their life. Grace is about the way that I do that and so, as I know they need the awareness of God's law, they need the self-awareness that law gives them, they need the guides of God's law, I also know that I need to bring that in a spirit of tender, patient, kind, and loving, forgiving grace. The home parenting needs to be a law-grace balance. They are not opposing forces.
