You Broke It

Dan Kunz

One of the things I most appreciate about my daughters, is that they hold their kids accountable.  Whether five or fifteen, they are being taught to be responsible.  Some wash their own clothes.  Others load the dishwasher.  They love to help their moms cook or bake.  If they’re old enough, they mow the lawn.  I’m amazed that they all get at their homework and complete it without whining, crying, or procrastinating.  (They didn’t learn that from me!)  Unfortunately, because so many parents today don’t hold their children responsible for the things they do, a pretty sizable portion of the population is growing up in a way which spells trouble for them down the road. If you broke it, you fix it. If you messed up your room, you clean it up. If you hurt someone, physically or emotionally, you make things right with them. People who grow up with such a mindset will probably go far in this world, simply because so many people don’t operate that way.

One of the most important lessons parents can teach their kids is that choices have consequences. I was shocked to learn the average person makes over 30,000 choices every day, all the way from choosing what to have for breakfast to what career path to pursue. Obviously, some choices have minimal consequences, and some have enormous consequences. Some people make great choices and end up with a good job, spouse, and family. Others make poor choices and end up homeless, incarcerated, or dead. Making choices is part of learning responsibility, too.

Unfortunately, there are some things we break which we can’t fix. I’m not a plumber or an electrician.  If I hit a deer with my truck, I’m not fixing that!  Some things we mess up and can’t clean up. If I accidentally spill a bag of fertilizer on the lawn, some is going to stay there.  No matter how responsible we are taught to be, we don’t always have the tools to make everything right again.  Fortunately, we have a God who can do anything. He can create a universe with just a word. He can mold a bucket of dirt into a walking, talking, thinking human being. He can come into the world as a tiny baby, grow into a man, die on a cross and fix every commandment we’ve broken and every mess we’ve made in our lives.

So-called “helicopter parents” or “bulldozer parents” really aren’t doing their kids any favors in this life. When they follow their child around, trying to clean up every mess they make, the child never learns responsibility.  When they strive to make their child’s life “happy” by clearing out every obstacle in their path, the child never learns to fend for himself or herself.  Having a God who loves us, wants us to be happy, and can restore us to perfection, is a different story. God, from eternity, had a plan for us. Through his Son, our brother, Jesus Christ, he executed the plan for us, because we could not do it ourselves.  He fixes our brokenness and cleans up the mess we make of our lives.  Jesus lived a perfect life and died a perfect death so we could be “unbroken” and “clean”.

It’s important to fix what you break and clean up your messes, but it’s even more important to know who, ultimately, is responsible for your eternal life!  II Corinthians 5:19 That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them. And he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.