REPENT!

How often we hear that word, but do we know what it means? It comes from a combination of 2 Greek words-meta, which means change, and noyia which means your mind. Change your mind. Sounds simple doesn’t it. But as humans we get set in our ways and our thinking so we only listen to those who agree with us and never think about changing our minds. About anything. Well, God changed my mind long ago and is still changing it.

My dad used to yell at me all the time. He had such a loud vocie that he could yell at the referee half-way down the basketball court and the ref heard him - in a crowded gymnasium in a town of 40,000 people! I hated it when he yelled at me. I vowed NEVER to yell at my children. Well, guess what, that was my parenting model and I couldn’t break the habit of doing as my dad did. Until I met Jesus and let Him be in control of my life. I began to see how God parented me. Yes, God disciplined me, but He never has yelled at me. He has not given me diseases, accidents, or a swat on the head with a ball bat. God’s parenting was gentle, loving, guiding - maybe because God is LOVE personified. Sometimes I had to receive the same discipline over and over as I continued to make the same mistakes. Still, God’s discipline was kind, loving, gentle and the only one that lost out was ME! As I tried (still working on it) to parent with God as my model, my parenting style changed. Oh, I still yelled. It was hard not to. But less often. And I tried just talking to my children more as people - human beings that Jesus died for.

When I was a student in a hospital laboratory, I made a mistake one day and expected my teacher to be very angry. He was not. I asked him WHY. he said that if he got angry with me it would only make me more tense and liable for more mistakes. I have never forgotten that. How true it was.

This came to mind because some of my children and grandchildren visited me recently. The mother yelled at the children all the time. One more than the other. I could see the tension mount in him as he made the same mistake twice and was yelled at each time. I didn’t say anything to her - maybe I should have - but since she isn’t my own child but married to one, I hesitate to interfere into their parenting. I don’t want to be an interfering mother-in-law. She seemed stressed as well. Stress kills. Jesus didn’t come to give us stress, but peace. Peace gives life, clear thinking, and rest.

God has shown us that love is the greatest thing in the world. It can conquer all. He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us. But we have to accept that Son in order to make God our Father, our Abba, our Daddy. That is the Father that we need to model ourselves after, not our earthly father who may or may not have been a good father (mine was a good one - he just yelled! No one is perect except Jesus.) Invite Jesus into your life and make God your role model for parenting and any other relationships you have. REPENT. You won’t be sorry, I can promise you that.

Rev. Joyce Kaplan,

M. Div. Retired

United Church of Christ Pastor