(This post was inspired by my 9 year old son and his humble act at the dinner table last night.)

Yesterday my son and I were talking about school, as we always do after he comes home, and one of the things we talked about was a very rare yellow slip that came home.  This conversation, unfortunately, didn’t go so well because my son didn’t care for the fact that he was being told how he was in the wrong.  Sometimes when my son is hearing about how he was behaving in a way that was impatient, selfish, or otherwise unacceptable he covers his ears, buries his head, and just plain tries not to listen.  If you are a parent you probably are saying to yourself “I hate that” or “that is disrespectful”.  Well, as a result of continuing to do this as well interrupting and whining, he received a consequence and without going into details, the situation went downhill from there.  Well he was sent to his room and stayed there until dinner.   What happened at dinner inspired me to write this post.

At dinner my son said to me “Mommy I’m sorry. I knew what I was doing and I knew it was wrong so I think I should be grounded”.  I was amazed.  Here was my nine year old not only apologizing but accepting the fact that he chose his actions, he chose his behavior, he chose his response.  He knew it was wrong and chose to do it anyway and now he sat there willing to take the consequence.  In our house being grounded is not fun thing and he knows what the rules are.  He is in his room no TV no computer, only the things that are in his room to do. Plus his favorite toys are all in another room.  So for him, being willing to take the consequence comes with full knowledge of what that will be like.

So I got to thinking about this.  How many of us would be willing to take the consequence for our actions with the full knowledge of what that is like?  Of every action, of every choice, of every thing that we do that we know is wrong every day.  Would we be willing to take the consequence for our actions knowing that would mean full separation from God for eternity?  I know I certainly wouldn’t!  That is why I am thankful to God beyond what I can express for the free gift He gave to me through Christ’s redemptive work on the cross.  Had it not been for that I would have to take the consequence without the ability to choose differently.  By choosing to trust in Christ and believing that He died for me, and rose again to defeat death, I no longer have to take the consequence.  For that I praise God.