As I opened the door to my insanely messy office today a flood of conviction washed over me.  About two hours prior I informed my seven year old that she could not watch a movie because of the state of her bedroom.  I spend a lot of energy instructing my kids in doing their chores and cleaning their rooms and picking up their things.  When I walk around the house I realize how many of my chores are undone and how many of my things are hanging out where they don't belong.  Despite this, I watched TV last night.  I never wanted to be one of those "do as I say, not as I do" parents.  Well, except in the area of imparting wisdom from my past stupidity in the hopes that they won't follow in those footsteps. I didn't want to be a parent who said, "when you become an adult you can decide if you want to clean your room or not."  No, I wanted to be a parent who modeled responsible behavior because it's the right thing to do, not because someone is forcing me to.

Often times I think I spend so much time preaching at my kids about what they should do (or shouldn't) but how much time do I spend modeling those actions?  Not enough.  Fortunately, God doesn't bring conviction for condemnation.  He and I both know that I'll never be perfect at this parenting thing but I am capable of doing better than this.  I'm just glad He doesn't leave me to do it on my own.   I love that God is a "do as I say and do" parent.  Thankfully, He's also a "love you no matter what" parent.