S5 E16 - Full Circle Moments

In life, we have full circle moments when things you once did are things you find yourself doing again - but as a parent. I had that this week, from t-ball with my son to reading them Calvin & Hobbes together, we had many full circle moments. As I tucked my kids in, my son said, "Dad, I'm just like you." 

And he will be - he watches my every move as all our children do. They will immitate the good and the bad. What kinds of things do our actions and habits teach them? And at the end of the day, do we remember the goal is not to make them like us - but to make them like Jesus? 

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths? Would you believe me? 

 Welcome back to season 5 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. And I’m excited to share a few moments together with you learning some important lessons from the simplest things. Let’s grow together! 

Life is fairly cyclical in nature, isn’t it? You see it in the fashion world, where things that have long gone out of style suddenly come back into style. The flair jeans you once made fun of your father for wearing in those old grainy pictures he keeps around - you are now buying at the mall and wearing yourself. You see it in the music world, where a particular sound that was once prevalent and has since disappeared suddenly comes back on the scene with a new artist that was raised on his grandparent’s music and wants to revive it. Even this week I heard a song that I would have sworn was from Elvis Presley, but as it turns out it’s from a new artist named Elliot James Reay who sounds just like him (seriously, it’s uncanny). But I believe the area that we can see the cyclical nature of life the most is with our own children. 

There are what I like to call full circle moments in life, where things that you once did as a child with your parents are now the very same things that you do as parents with your own children. In particular, this week has been full of them for me. Growing up, my brother and I played baseball from the time we could first pick up a bat to clear through high school and even college for my brother. We lived, breathed, and bled baseball. I look back with great fondness on our t-ball days, where we played for the “Gators” – wearing our powder blue t-shirts and custom printed hats in the Battlecreek Little League. Dad would help our coach Chris Clemens with us and the rest of the kids while our mom cheered on from the stands. Well, fast forward thirty years, and I had a full circle moment last night as my son Dane played his very first t-ball game. I assisted the coach with the kids out in the field, and Kylie and the kids along with several others from church cheered him on from the stands. He was so cute out there with his big helmet batting off a tee; or getting down in his “ready stance” we practiced at home with his little backwards hat. He even came home with the game ball after his very first game – I couldn’t have been any prouder than I was. 

We got home and were getting ready for bed, and the kids requested we read a book – but not just any book, they wanted to read Calvin & Hobbes. I smiled – the Calvin & Hobbes comics are something that my dad read to my brother and I all growing up on a weekly basis. I felt like my father with a kid on each arm, laughing at the very same jokes and comic strips that my brother and I laughed over on our father’s lap thirty years ago. Like I said, full circle moments. Watching my children feels a little bit like going down memory lane as they walk in the same steps of their father. As I tucked them into bed, Dane whispered in my ear and said, “Dad, I’m just like you!” holding up his game ball that he went to sleep with. You sure are son…you sure are. 

That can be very humbling, can’t it? Having children that want to be just like their parents. As I walked back down the hallway after shutting the door and saying goodnight, I started to think to myself – what if he was just like me? What if he struggled with the same things? What if the things he saw in me and emulated were not just good things, but also my weaknesses and my failures?  This is one of the realities that we have to recognize – is that our children will model us, not just in the good things, but if we are not careful, in the bad things too. In Luke 6:40 Jesus would say the following, “A student is not better than the teacher, but the student who has been fully trained will be like the teacher.” Children are students of their parents – and the old expression “do as I say, not as I do” simply does not fly. They are watching you, and they will mimic the behaviors, attitudes, and habits that are modeled for them – both good and bad. Understanding this, it leads us to ask ourselves as parents: what am I teaching my children? My actions don’t just impact myself; they impact my children. Consider your life, your habits, and your behaviors as a parent for just a moment. Think about the kinds of things you watch – are those the kinds of things you would want your children to find entertaining? Think about the kinds of things you listen to – is that the kind of music and messages that you want your children to fill their minds and hearts with? Think about the kinds of things you eat or drink – are those the kinds of habits you want your children to form as they grow and make decisions on their own? Your actions, your choices, and your habits will have a major impact on who your children grow to become. We need to step back and ask ourselves the question of Proverbs 22:6 – do my behaviors train up a child in the way they should go? Though obviously none of us are perfect, hopefully the answer to that question is yes – they do. And if not, the time to start is right now through leading by example. Do you want your children to pray? Make prayer an intricate part of your day. Do you want your children to serve? Make service towards others your own personal priority. In whatever it is, if you want your children to do it, it starts with your own intentionality to lead by example. 

But with that being said, it’s actually not hoping for our children to grow to become just like us – but in actuality it’s that our children grow to become just like our heavenly Father. That is why Paul would say the following in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” Did you catch that? Paul doesn’t simply say, “do everything I do” – but rather he says, “do the things that I do if they are also the things Christ did.” That teaches us two things. First, that it’s not about us. If there is any good in me as a father, it’s not because I am good, but rather it is the good of Christ in me. Jesus has transformed me from the inside out, and the good that my children see and follow is not to my glory – but only to the glory of God. Second, that it’s not about making our children like us. While we are called to teach our children as parents, it’s not our teaching we bring – the real teacher is Jesus. As such, our goal is not to make our own disciples out of our children, but disciples of Jesus who live, think, and love like him. Because in reality, they are not really our children, they are God’s children that we as parents are temporarily stewards over. Paul again would write in Ephesians 5:1, “You are God’s children whom he loves, so try to be like him.” Do you know what God hopes for the most? Full circle moments. That he can look down upon his children and see us loving, living, and leading in ways that model his own nature. Children that want more than anything to be just like him. My friends, do you look like Jesus? Do you show your children Jesus? May we strive ever more diligently to let the beauty of Jesus be seen in us as day by day we are formed and fashioned into the image of God. 

This has been the Set Your Mind Above Podcast, season 5 episode 16 – and I’m so thankful that we had this time to grow together! A new episode is dropped every Friday, so be sure to tune in next week.  Also, if you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast, give us a good rating or most importantly share it with someone else – it would help to reach others that I never could alone.  And more than anything, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.