Daily Devotional

I once heard the following line from a stand-up comedian: “On a scale of 1 to 10, parenting is a lot of 1s and a lot of 10s.” This was definitely true of Lauren and my first experience parenting a toddler. As our daughter Lottie began walking and talking, there were a lot of high points. Every day brought a new word or a new discovery. Seeing her personality blossom was a delight—we learned about her innate curiosity, her people-loving extraversion, her likes and dislikes, loves and fears. But we learned toddler parenting is not for the faint of heart. Lottie was fundamentally selfish, absorbed in her own needs and wants. She insisted on TV at every opportunity and threw fits when we said no… she yelled “No!” or “Mine!” if we try to take an object from her… she came up with EVERY possible excuse to avoid bedtime. We referred to her as “our adorable little sinner.”

That may sound a little harsh, but I think it’s supported by Scripture.  Proverbs 22:15 says that “folly is bound up in the heart of a child.” Even as young as a year, we could see folly—her “sin nature”—rearing its ugly head in Lottie’s heart. The Bible teaches that all of us, from birth, are sinners by nature (Ps. 51:5, Eph. 2:3), with a heart that is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9, KJV). Sin, selfishness, rebellion against God, is inherent to every member of fallen humanity. For anyone unsure of this fact, I recommend spending a day or two surrounded by a group of toddlers.

Yet many hold to the idea that deep down, most people are basically good. In recent Internet polls, about three-quarters of Americans agree with this statement. According to this philosophy, people lose touch with their “inner goodness” because of factors in their environment, ranging from personal tragedy to social pressure. This worldview appears, for example, in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein, in which Frankenstein’s monster, initially curious and unselfish, is brutally rejected by society for his hideous appearance. Driven to hatred and rage, the monster turns on its creator and ends up murdering six people in cold blood. The Frankenstein myth perpetuates today in various forms. Consider Hollywood’s obsession with villainous backstories: childhood antagonists (Maleficent, the Wicked Witch, even the Joker) are really decent people ruined by bad circumstances. Disney’s Frozen says the quiet part out loud in the song “Fixer Upper:” “People make bad choices when they’re mad or scared or stressed, / But throw a little love their way, and you’ll bring out their best.” In other words, environmental factors (which cause anger, fear, or stress) are responsible for our misbehavior, not any inherent sin nature.

Toddlers pull the rug out from under this view. I don’t really think I can blame my children’s temper tantrums on some corruption of their inherent goodness due to environmental factors. Lottie—and as he gets older, Elliott—regularly make bad choices when they’re NOT mad or scared or stressed. My kids misbehave not because their basic goodness is waning, but because they are sinners.

So what? One, pray for Lottie, Elliott, and children everywhere, that the Lord would be working in their little hearts to draw them to Himself. Two, pray for me, my wife, and parents everywhere as we wrestle with the joyfully agonizing task of raising sinners. Three, maybe we need a reminder of our own inherent sinfulness. Do we blame our “bad choices,” our sin patterns, on our environment or factors outside our control, instead of facing the reality of our own sinful hearts (James 1:16-17)? May we pray like David for God to “create in us a clean heart” (Ps. 51:10) and continue His work of regenerating us by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

"English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers."