I have always wondered why parents treat their children as if they are perfect. We all enter this life in the same way. Those of us who are parents can remember the problems our parents encountered raising us. I wonder why it is, that parents tend to forget their childhood past. David reminds us of our propensity to sin even before we were born. Psalm 51:5 says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin, my mother conceived me.” We were all born with a sinful nature inherited from Adam and Eve. No one is exempt from the indwelling sin nature. Every person born inherits the sin nature.

Left alone, the inherit sin nature will manifest itself through sinful actions. This is why our parental manual, God’s Word instructs us to “train up our children in the way they should go. It instructs us to raise our children to obey God’s Word. Deuteronomy 6 gives a detailed description to parents of how how to accomplish this training. None of us will reach perfection on this side of heaven, and no one is born into perfection. Good character will not overtake a child just by having them in a good environment. In working with children and youth ministry, I knew parents who took their childvto vacation Bible school, Sunday school, youth group, church camp but did nothing at home to deal with the inherit sinful nature of the heart.

This heart is not the physical heart that causes our bodies to function, it is the spiritual heart tĥat shapes our thoughts, personality and character. Our physical heart pumps blood throughout our body so that we can live and function and our spiritual heart impacts how we behave and forms our personalities. God has blessed us with the Bible to help us to cultivate healthy spiritual hearts, just as He has blessed us with medicine to help us maintain healthy physical hearts. God helps us to cultivate a heart like His through the Holy Spirit and by obeying His Word. The beautiful, perfect, innocent child that brings love at first sight to a parent at birth, is born with a sinful nature. If the spiritual heart of the child is not nurtured and cultivated, the evil of sinful nature will drive and shape the child’s personality and behavior.

We were created in sin however, God created us with absolute perfection in heaven. He saw His first-born humans as perfect and innocent too, until Eve’s spiritual heart condition was exposed. Only a few chapters after the account of creation, we see how God saw mankind differently. This is what God said in Genesis 6:5, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God was saddened by what He saw in man’s spiritual heart. This is where sin resides. In Genesis 4:7, when Cain was angry at his brother’s offering, God warned him with these words, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

How does one do well? We find this answer in Psalms 119:9, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.” How does a parent cultivate a pure heart? A pure heart is formed by cultivating it with God’s Word. Children are sinners. Once the sin nature within their spiritual heart awakens, it will influence the outcome of their behavior. When a parent does nothing to cultivate their child’s spiritual heart, then the intents of their hearts will only grow to be evil continually. God did not leave mankind to doom in our sinful nature. He knew that man would never be able to save himself from the wickedness of the heart. God knew that man would remain separated from Him, so He provided a way to reconcile us to Him through Christ.

Even while we were in this state of eternal doom, God demonstrated His love for us by sending Christ to reconcile us to Him. God’s Word explains this in 2 Corinthians 5:19, “namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” Children are sinners, just like adults, they are not perfect, and they are only temporarily innocent, the minute they take a toy from a child or hit a child because they could not take the toy, the state of their sinful nature comes to life. Parents should promptly begin to cultivate their child’s spiritual heart from the time their child can hear and respond to their instructions, to the time that they come into adulthood.

They must be ready to respond to God’s call of salvation. Through the power of Holy Spirit, given when one submits their life to Christ, He will lead them through the process of sanctification and becoming more like Him. My Journal, “A Proverbs Each Day”, is a great resource for family devotion. The journals can be used as a tool for instilling godly character. Children misbehave because of their spiritual heart condition, they must be made aware of this and parents must be ready to help them cultivate a spiritual heart, that loves and obeys God. Children need a Savior that will save them from the evil within them because they are sinners too. They are not perfect. Parents should not be surprised when they see their child’s sin nature in action. They should begin praying and cultivating a heart that will submit to Christ.