I love my kids. I love them more than I can possibly put into words. But sometimes, having a babysitter feels like just about the best thing in the world. On this particular August day, life is good. My wife and I have a babysitter which means it’s just us and our daughter. We’re getting ready to enjoy a peaceful lunch and a peaceful afternoon, when I turn the key in the minivan’s ignition… and nothing happens.
It’s been a wonderful day. My parents are watching our two sons, so we’ve just been enjoying ourselves, taking our time, running some errands, reveling in the simplicity of life without three kids in tow. The morning has felt quiet, peaceful, free. And that peace seems to be slipping through our fingers, our perfect carefree afternoon going all to pieces before our eyes.
Our plans are being dashed by a simple but significant detail: the van won’t start.
It’s weird. I turn the key and it isn’t clicking, it isn’t trying to turn over. Nothing. We pull out our phones and start googling. We start to get some ideas about what it might be and what it probably isn’t, but none of the tricks we read about online are working. We try all kinds of things. We try holding the key in the start position longer than usual. We try putting the van in neutral and turning the key then.
We pop the hood and look underneath. I know how to check the oil and the transmission fluid. I know how to check the level of coolant and that I shouldn’t take the cap off the radiator when the vehicle is hot, but I am no mechanic. I don’t know what to look for, but everyone knows that when your car won’t start, you’re supposed to pop the hood.
One of the web pages mentioned fuses. I find the fuse box and open it. I look at the fuses. I don’t know what I’m looking at, so I put the cover back on. We’re clearly getting nowhere. Then a woman walks up to the van. She can tell we’re having trouble (I knew that popping the hood would accomplish something). We tell her what’s happening. She looks at a couple of things, makes a couple of suggestions we’ve already tried. We thank her for her help, but clearly there’s nothing she can do. She walks back to her vehicle and drives off.
The more time we spend on auto repair blogs, the more it seems like it’s probably the starter. It looks like we are going to need a tow. I call my dad to bail us out. I’ll work out the getting towed part later, but he agrees to come pick us up. I’m still on the phone with him, working out the details when the woman who approached us earlier pulls up beside us.
She tells us she called her husband. He’s a mechanic and when she described the symptoms to him he was pretty sure it was the starter. She thought it would be helpful for us to know so she drove back over to tell us. I remember thinking that it seems silly for her to have gone through that much trouble. We’re strangers and it isn’t like she had an extra starter in her trunk that she can pop in for us. She can’t really do anything to help, but it’s a nice gesture. She’s just doing what she can, giving us some info that might help us. Nothing big, but it is unusual. Who goes through that much trouble to try to help a stranger in a day when they can get on their phone and figure out their own solution? She doesn’t have any concrete help to give, but her kindness means a lot during an experience so frustrating. We express genuine gratitude for the time and effort she has given to trying to help, and she gets ready to drive away.
But before she leaves, I look over and notice something. I look at the tinted windows of her SUV and see kids peering out the back windows at me. And a thought strikes me. That woman didn’t do much to change our situation that day, but she did something that made a difference. That day, those kids learned from mom’s example that when you see someone in trouble, you try to help. Those kids learned that mercy, not convenience, should drive what you do. That day, that mom was teaching her kids that helping others is just what you do. And it reminded me that every day my kids – who know how to be the sweetest kids in the world and also know how to drive me up a wall – they’re watching me and they’re learning from my example.
At just twenty-four years old, King Amon lies dead – a victim of assassination. He reigned a mere two years and his legacy is summed up in 2 Kings 21 in just three verses.
“And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did. And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them: And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.” 2 Kings 21:20-22
Amon’s father King Manasseh was an effective teacher, whether he recognized it or not. Scripture tells us that King Manasseh was a wicked king, quite possibly the most wicked king that Judah ever had. In fact, Manasseh’s sinful reign was a major factor in God’s final pronouncement of judgment on the southern kingdom. Amon watched his father’s reign, learning from the idolatry and violence. And whether Manasseh realized it or not, Amon tucked away lessons from what he watched.
Oh, this is how a king acts.
Later in Manasseh’s life, Amon watched his father repent and turn to God, but though God was pleased with Manasseh’s penitence, it was too little too late for Amon. The damage was already done. He had learned the lessons his father had taught all too well and he dutifully walked in the way of his father. 2 Chronicles 33:23 tells us sadly that he “humbled not himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more.”
It is fascinating to read through 2 Kings and see how king after king followed in the footsteps of his father. Of course, we are also reminded that a good king like Josiah can be the son of an evil king like Amon and a wicked king like Manasseh can call the righteous king Hezekiah his father.
There are exceptions, but history and experience both teach us that the saying “like father, like son” is more than just an overused axiom. Children learn a great deal from their parents, and most of it is not learned from their parents words. It is learned from moments watching their parents when they least expect it.
God realizes this, that the lessons parents teach their children are most often taught right in the middle of everyday life. That is why, through Moses, He told the Israelites that after receiving His commandments, they needed, not only to “teach them diligently unto thy children”. He also instructed them to “talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Deuteronomy 6:7
The boldness of the apostle Paul has always astounded me when he confidently declares in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” Oh that every Christian parent can say the same to their children.
In case you’re wondering… my dad rescued us. Our van eventually got towed and the starter got replaced, but as I think back on that day, I can still see those kids looking out the windows of that SUV, watching their mom try to help some strangers whose van wouldn’t start. I don’t know if that mom even realized it that day, but they were watching. The kids are always watching.
Exempla 