Parenting Reconciliation

We don't have to teach babies how to fight.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-20

Biting other babies. Stealing brother’s toy. Teenage drama enacted in best-friend-fights.

Dreaming about what they will be when they grow up. Not caring to do anything as a grown-up. Calling confusion.

These are just a couple of the issues that present us as parents that seem to be addressed by the core “re-” of our story addressed in 2 Corinthians 5. How does knowing the third ‘re-‘ of redemption help us parent?

The fact that we have been reconciled to God changes everything for us as parents and children. The metanarrative of redemption in Christ makes our calling clear: be a messenger of reconciliation. I love that our children attended a school that alluded to 2 Corinthians 5 in a pledge that every student speaks every morning: ““We, the students of –, pledge to act as ambassadors for Christ by caring for others, trusting one another and respecting faculty and our fellow students. We will take responsibility for our actions, be fair to others, forgive our fellow students, be loyal to our commitments and have patience with others. We will uphold qualities of good citizenship and act as students of God.”

Our pledge, our calling, our commitment as Christians is to be ambassadors of reconciliation everywhere we go in everything we do. Of course, we rely on the reality of 2 Corinthians 5:21 – we can’t and won’t be ambassadors of reconciliation except by the power of Christ in us. We can tell our daughters to pursue forgiveness and reconciliation in that friend-fight, but we can remind her that she has no power in and of herself to accomplish this, she is utterly dependent on the Christ who strengthens her (Phil. 4:6).

When our children move from knowing they want to be Spiderwoman when they grow up to the calling confusion brought on by turning twenty years old, we can counsel them confidently, “Be a messenger of reconciliation.” (Okay, I admit that’s a little obnoxious, and I wouldn’t say exactly that, but the core message is true. Pursue the themes of the larger story in the daily acts of everyday life. When we keep the message of reconciliation in the forefront of our mind, we will live our story in a way that draws our children to live their story for the sake of God’s glory.

For reflection: What are some ways being an ambassador of Christ or a minister of reconciliation might help you with some of your particular parenting struggles?