New Hearts

So here is a truth, "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."  (Genesis 8:21)  We can sometimes watch our children and wonder , "Where did that come from?  Who put such cruel words in that precious three year old mouth?"   The answer is in the Bible.  It says, we are all born with hearts full of evil.  The amazing thing is that it does not say part full, or mostly full.  It is a blanket statement and without a qualifier.  Our hearts are 100 percent evil from our very beginning.

I have a problem when my children prove this verse true. I am shocked, hurt and often angry.  I forget that they were born prisoners to sin, just like me.  I disregard the fact that their evil tendencies come from me.  I fail to remember 1 Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common..."  

If my children's sins are common to humanity, should I not then have compassion on them, since I suffer from the same plague?  "Your children have the stamp of character that their parents have given them.  How careful, then, should be your treatment of them; how tenderly should you rebuke and correct their faults."  (EG White, Testimonies to the Church, volume 4 page 140.1)  But, because my heart is full of evil too, I do not know how to correct them, nor can I sympathize with their sinful condition. I only know how to find fault, and accuse.  And when I read the rest of Ellen White's statement..."You are too stern and exacting, and have frequently dealt with them when you were excited and angry.  This has almost fretted away the golden cord of love that binds their hearts to yours;" I find myself in a deep dark dungeon of despair.

I despair because I know my sin kills the love in my children's hearts, yet I am powerless to stop expressing it towards them.  "O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)

But it is in exactly this condition that I can find hope.  I cannot do anything to change my heart or my children's hearts.  But Jesus came and lived among men, as a man, to free me.  He said, "Father...glorify thy Son...as thou has given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life..." (John 17:1, 2)  Jesus has power over my flesh, and thank God He also has power over my children's.  So although we suffer from evil hearts, God has promised, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." (Ezekiel 36:26)

I do not need to loose my temper with my children until their love is so cold they turn to others for affection.  I can come to Jesus and say, I am so pitiful, I get upset because my children exercise the very inheritance I  gave them.  Please help me.  Give me a new heart like you promised and He will.

And if our children's hearts are cold because of the damage we have done God has another promise He will fulfill. "Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.  And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border." (Jeremiah 31:16, 17)