Man’s Rules of Religion or a Heart After God?

Mom and dad, we need to be careful with our mandates...especially in the delivery. We must define clear boundaries and provide safeguards. Be aware that our child(ren) imitate us by embracing our spoken and unspoken values and biases.   When it comes to the spiritual realm our example trumps everything.
 
If we play a social spiritual game of speaking and looking ‘Christianesque’  our children very well may come to despise and reject it. By behaving as such our faith can appear superficial, empty, hollow and meaningless.  A kind smile and courtesy, “I’ll pray for you,” only to be caught later to not have prayed or even really heard a previously acknowledged prayer concern is a prime example.
 
The religious people of Jesus’ day had mastered the game of looking and acting religious. They were arrogant, displayed attitudes of superiority and were very pious. Jesus had strong words against them and called them out as seen in Matthew 23:24-26, “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”
 
The culture and pressure of being a "super-Christian" today can be similar to those called out by Jesus Himself.  Instead let’s be like David, who, even though he messed up plenty, but was a man after God’s own heart.  Acts 13:22, ”After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.”
 
To be "a man after God’s own heart" requires humility, brokenness and a hunger for God’s Word. For His Word to be played out in us and through us, we need to quit pretending and start living out a lifestyle and practice of truly loving God & others in our actions and reactions.  Mom and dad, this starts with our example and expectations set before our children.