What are the two periods of a child’s life that are most dreaded by most parents?
Answer: the terrible twos, and the teenage years.
It’s obvious why these periods of a child’s life strike such fear into the hearts of the average mum and dad…
… they correspond to the times when children are developing most rapidly, and when they are therefore learning a whole pile of new ways of sinning in a very short space of time.
Toddlers are just learning to walk (i.e. to run away when mum says “Come here”), to talk (i.e. to say “No!”), to feed themselves (i.e. to throw their food all over the floor), and to interact more creatively with their environment (i.e. to throw screaming tantrums on the floor of the supermarket).
Teenagers are just starting to exercise more freedom in their own decision-making (i.e. to stomp upstairs in a sulk when they’re told that 10pm really is time to be back from the party), to develop interest in the opposite sex (i.e. to sleep around), and to take responsibility for their own future (i.e. to exercise such responsibility after the fashion of their soap-opera heroes).
These new creative abilities are good and wonderful gifts from God. But every gift can be abused, and the world tells us that the sinful distortions of them (in brackets, above) are inevitable. Little wonder, then, that parents fear toddlers and teenagers.
Tragically, even Christian parents are often tempted to capitulate to society’s expectations at this point. We’re tempted to believe the lie that rebellion is inevitable, as though there’s nothing that could be done to stop a young child for whom Christ died turning into a little devil on his 2nd or 13th birthday. But make no mistake, this is a lie, and it needs to be exposed.
There is not the slightest hint in the Bible that rebellion of this kind is inevitable. On the contrary, the Bible paints a picture of family life in which children are raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, never knowing a day when they didn’t love Jesus. Trials may come, ups and downs of various kinds may abound, but according to Scripture there is no good reason to accept the inevitability this kind of familial and social disfunction. Don’t let worldliness destroy your family.
These years ought to be the most exciting periods of family life, and by the grace of God they can be. What a wonderful gift to have a young two-year-old who is suddenly able to talk, to play more creatively, to have fun in a whole pile of new ways. What a privilege to watch your child growing into a young man or woman, taking responsibility for themselves, looking further into their future than ever before. Don’t let the world steal the joy of your family life by crushing you under the burden of its sin-soaked expectations. When sin abounds, grace abounds all the more – grace manifest in the loving discipline and consistent nurture of Christian parents who love their kids enough to believe the gospel rather than the lies of the world.
