TLP 31: Should I Ever Ignore My Child's Sin?

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Remember our theme verse, Ephesians 4 .15. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects and to Him who is the head, even

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Christ. Welcome to Truth. Love. Parents. Where we use

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God's Word to become intentional, premeditated parents. Here's your host,

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AM Brewster. Love covers a multitude of sins. First Peter 4 .8b,

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last half of the verse. I don't know about you, but the common application of this verse has really always troubled me.

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Which sins should I look over? How often should I ignore my kid's sins? Does God do that with me?

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Is there a certain category of sin here and a certain category of sin there that it's okay to do this with? Is it any sin at any time, depending on the situation?

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What does it mean? Well, unfortunately, if you've heard that true love, quote, covers up sin by ignoring it, well, then you were subjected to the same poor interpretation that I was for so long.

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Today I want to look at one Old Testament verse and two New Testament verses that correctly interpret this idea of covering sin that really show us what

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God meant by this. But more on that in a minute. Today's episode is short, but don't forget that we offer a

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PDF of notes from each podcast. You can find these at evermindministries .com.

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And remember, however you choose to listen to TLP, please make sure that you do the following. First listen and learn, then rate and review, and subscribe and share.

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Rating and reviewing helps more people find us, and that's what we want. In fact, you guys have been a huge part of this.

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We are daily reaching out to more and more unique individuals on the internet, and we're so thankful for your part, and we just really want to apply

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God's truth to as many families as possible. So thank you for helping us reach that goal. All right, now back to our topic.

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Should I ever ignore my child's sin? You know, you're in a grocery store shopping someplace, and the kid starts throwing a temper tantrum.

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Do you just continue on shopping, ignoring him? Is that what the verse is talking about? Are there certain things that I hear the kid saying in their bedroom, and I'm just like, you know what?

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I'm not going to deal with that. What does it really mean to let love cover a multitude of sin?

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Well, there's this one Old Testament verse, and there are two New Testament verses that I alluded to earlier that I believe give us exactly what

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God meant by this. The first verse is this, Psalm 85 2. It says, "...you

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forgave the iniquity of your people." It's talking about God here. You forgave the iniquity of your people.

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You covered all their sin. Then there are two New Testament verses, Romans 4 7 says, "...blessed

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are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered."

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Then James 5 20 says, "...let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins."

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And I think just from these three verses, it becomes so clear to us what God meant when He said love covers a multitude of sins.

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So what's the application in our parenting? Well, first of all, nowhere in Scripture are Christians told that love ignores sin.

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In fact, the number of passages that would blatantly contradict that concept are prevalent. As a parent, it is nothing short of laziness or fear that makes us turn a blind eye to our children's disobedience.

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When we choose not to address our children's sin, we're doing them a huge disservice. We're not loving them at all.

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Now, I'm not saying that there are always going to be times where you're giving consequences in the moment, or a lecture, or a memory program.

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But since we will never accidentally glorify God in our parenting, I am saying that we need to be purposeful in how we deal with our kids' sinful choices.

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It may involve waiting, but it will never involve ignoring. The second application is this.

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The four passages we looked at are, in fact, reminding us that the most loving and Christ -honoring thing that we can do in the face of our children's sin is to have a spirit of forgiveness.

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This interpretation is highly supported by numerous passages beyond what we just saw here.

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This idea of covering sin in these verses is directly tied to forgiveness being given.

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The third application is, therefore, I don't ever need to feel responsible to ignore sin.

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Ever. It never should happen. I might choose to wait to deal with it, but I'm not just going to ignore it and go on with my business, continue my cleaning, or continue my shopping, and pretend like it didn't happen, and never get back to it, never discuss it with my child.

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I can't do that. It's not biblical. So, four, instead, in a spirit of love and forgiveness,

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I'm going to speak to my child about his standing before God in an attempt for him to find reconciliation.

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Me with him, helping him to see his place before God, and how God wants him to grow through this situation.

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And the fifth application is, rebuking and reproving and admonishing can be and generally are the most loving things a parent can do when they're done with the right attitude of love and restoration.

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Because remember our theme verse, Ephesians 4 .15, but speaking the truth in love.

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We are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. There is no ignoring there.

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There is no pretending that my child didn't do that. And no, I need to speak the truth in love.

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So going back to that situation where I'm shopping, my child throws a temper tantrum or starts to have a meltdown of some sort.

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I might look like I'm ignoring it.

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I might continue going on in my shopping to have the child see that he's not going to manipulate me.

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It's kind of like that old Andy Griffith show where Opie was deciding that he was going to throw a temper tantrum and Andy Griffith kind of continued on with his work until finally he looks up and he looks at Opie and he goes, what are you doing?

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You know, it might be one of those things where we don't want the child to get the impression that they can just manipulate us and terrorize us and control us.

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But if the child doesn't settle down, I can't just let him continue throwing his temper tantrum in aisle five while I'm down aisle 13.

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No, I'm going to go over there and I'm going to address it. And it might mean like, you know, the stereotypical, leave the store, leave the basket where it is.

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Your child is way more important than has to be dealt with right now. It may be a situation where I sit there on the floor with him for a bit to get him to settle down so he knows that daddy's not ignoring what he's doing.

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Daddy's going to address it, but he's going to address it on daddy's terms and not the child's terms. There are many things and I really can't dictate to you exactly what to do.

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Your child is your child. I am me. You are you. There are so many things that factor in, but the reality of the situation and what really wanted to focus on today is that I need to deal with it biblically, with God's truth, with God's love.

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It needs to be addressed. And I am a bad parent if I just ignore it and pretend like it didn't happen.

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So please don't forget to download our episode notes. They can be a huge help in reminding us of our parental responsibilities.

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And I'm very much looking forward to our next episode. It will be our second two -part show about the part that emotions play in our lives and the lives of our children.

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I can tell you this for sure. The world's ideas about emotions are a failure philosophy of epic proportions.

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And way, way too many Christians are embracing those philosophies in their parenting. And I want you to join us next time for the first part of this extremely important study.

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We are emotional beings, and I think that many of us, especially our children, don't understand what emotions are, the role that emotions are supposed to play in our lives.

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I think we're being lied to by the entertainment industry, and I think we're believing those lies. So this is going to be a super important study about emotions in parenting.

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And then I'd like to encourage you not to forget to like and follow TLP on Facebook and me on Twitter at AM Brewster.

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And we really greatly appreciate all of you who listen and learn and subscribe and share and rate and review.

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Thank you for taking the time to be with us today. Listen, our God is so awesome. How could we not want to know how his perfect truth can help us parent better today?

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So whether your kids are biological, adopted, foster, or step, you can be the best parent they will ever have when you submit to God's word.

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And I want you guys to have a great week. Bye. Truth. Love. Parent. Is part of the

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Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional, premeditated parent.

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Join us next time as we search God's word for the truth your family needs today.