Are you Sacrifing Your Children?

Leviticus 20:1-7 (Click on reference to read text)

My children have decided they want to share a room.  That means I spent the past few days turning my daughter's girly room into a gender neutral room.  In the midst of moving furniture, I am having to patch holes and paint.  It seemed I couldn't get three consecutive minutes to work without interruption.  Didn't they know I was doing all that work for them?  The icing on the cake came when my daughter brought me a broken pencil sharpener.  In exasperation I asked her why she didn't ask me for help.  She replied, "I didn't want to make you upset by asking you a question."  In shame, I put the roller down and immediately dropped to my knees.  I wrapped her in a big hug, told her I was wrong and asked for her forgiveness.  You see... I had placed her upon the altar of a false god, and I needed to take her off!

The Ammonites worshipped a god named Molech and served him by sacrificing their children upon an altar built for him (Lev 18:21).  Although this seems utterly appalling, I would be so bold to say that in some form we all do that, if not on a daily, at least a weekly basis.  I have sacrificed my children to the god of personal time, a well decorated house, and exercise.  I have given dirty looks and talked in ugly tones to my children for the sake of these "gods."  My most precious blessings have been sacrificed for things I have convinced myself I needed more than their well-being.  Even worse, I have taught them the opposite of the Gospel.  Are my actions teaching them that God delights in them (Zeph 3:17), that God will always answer when they call (Jeremiah 33:3), and that nothing can separate them from the love of God (Romans 8:38)?  No, I was teaching them the antithesis of every reason that God sent Jesus to die for them. 

Praise the Lord that God loves me enough to kick me in the tail and not allow me to continue on a path of destruction.  As I often say, "He loves me to much to leave me where I am."  The Bible tells me that I should be the one on the altar, offering myself as a "living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - This is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:1-2).  The world tells me that I deserve personal time, and to spend as much time as necessary to make my house and body look good... no matter the cost.  The only way to "not conform to the patter of this world" is to renew my mind in His Word every day.  To take my family off the altar of false gods and put myself on the altar of the one true God.  That is where true life, resurrected new life, begins!

We may not be placing our children on a burnt offering, but we may be sacrificing their hearts and skewing their understanding of the Gospel for gods that need to be destroyed.  2 Corinthians 10:3-6 tells us that though we walk by the flesh, we do not wage war in the flesh.  We have divine power to demolish strongholds.  Time to take our kids off the altar and put ourselves there.  That is a picture of the Gospel they can understand.

For further reading, PLEASE read:  http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/motherhood-is-a-calling-and-where-your-children-rank