Luke 2:41-52

For the Kids

All children grow up to become adults, if they continue through life. Even Jesus was a little baby . It is my job as a parent to help you as a child to become a good adult. The respect I desire you to show adults is the respect that I am hoping that you will show God for the rest of your lives. But there comes a time when I am supposed to let go of the respect that I am teaching you to show for me as a parent, and start showing that for other people and for God, because you love them.

For the Adults

Even Jesus was obedient to His earthly parents, Joseph and Mary. There were likely a handful of moments during which the nature of God caused Him to follow through on strange paths that they couldn't understand, but on a daily life, it is important to understand that the boy Jesus submitted Himself to His parents while He was under their "jurisdiction". He had to do so for the name of all righteousness to be fulfilled in Him. And we, modeling ourselves after Jesus, should do our utmost to respect our elders, even when we view them as "lower" or undeserving.

It must have been so difficult to be the parent to Jesus, who was perfect, and when they had this knowledge that He was the Anointed One. How do you train Him, other than in the word of God? Do you even discipline Him, even for a perceived slight? Would it have been wrong to discipline? Believe it or not, these are questions all parents have to ask themselves as they formulate a plan and worldview about parenting. It's difficult to establish guilt, except when children are outright rebellious. And in the midst of it all, we need to show the love of God, all while we are irritated at the child for disobeying for the umpteenth time - imagine how God could be exasperated at us, but He's not. God loves us with a perfect love, and we have to strive for that as parents and as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Another discussion to be had here is that we parents' ultimate goal is to help the child become an adult, to support and raise their own family. To leave their parents and cleave to a spouse. Our goal is to ensure you are ready to become a part of the world without being tainted by the world - to be IN the world but not OF it. And here is where much of the nail-biting and fear can set in, when a parent sees every sin as a sign of their failure, and can all too often result to fear-based parenting - then the rules become the norm, rather than love. We have to repent of that, because the goal of fear-based parenting is the raise little pharisees that will never take responsibility for themselves and will always point the finger elsewhere.

Yes, we need to have rules. House rules, car rules, obedient to the state rules. But the governing principle for Christians is love - a love that is patient, kind, does not envy, does not always want its own way, forgives, and HOPES. Always hopes. Not in what we see before us, but in a God that is in control of all things and loves us with a more perfect love than we could ever understand.

Luke 1:26-56

For the Kids

There are a lot of times that we have to go through difficult situations that we don't understand. God tells us something in His word, and we don't think it should be true, or that it isn't possible to follow God's ways in a situation in our life. But wonderful things happen when we obey God's ways and decide to do the right thing, no matter what. Our souls are lifted up when we decide to walk in faith, do things God's way even when it doesn't make sense.

For the Adults

Pregnant! But I'm only a young teenager. And I've never been with a man! Yet, when an angel is standing before you telling you that God's plans for the anointed one to enter the planet come through your womb, it must be even more earth shattering than being a pregnant teen. Not to mention that she was betrothed to be married, and therefore could be stoned to death for adultery, should Joseph claim that she committed adultery against him.

Mary's reaction is beautiful. "Behold your faithful servant".

Mary had faith that if God would make the miracle of an immaculate conception possible, then He would make all of the other miracles happen to allow the baby to reach adulthood and carry out His ministry. God would provide, one step at a time. If only we all had such faith.