I have a little girl who is struggling with her sin a lot lately, not that we ever have a time when we are not.  It's just that hers seems to be rather visible and loud and dramatic at the moment.  These sins are hard to swallow but easier to battle; it's the hidden sin, the sneaky stuff that really troubles me as a mom.  If I fear man more than God, then the outwardly obnoxious sins of my children that embarrass me in front of other people chafe at me far more than the sins my children keep neatly tucked away, out of human sight.  But if I am fearing God more than man, I will hate it all and think as God thinks. In God's ecomony, sin is sin.  There are no levels or degrees of severity.  All of our sin, ALL of it, is putrid and filthy.  And there is nothing we can do about it.  There is not a prayer we can say, an amount we can pay, an act of any sort that will wipe away our guilt before God. But there is the Gospel.  The good news.  There is Christ.  Our Mediator.  Our righteousness.  Our Saviour.  The Good News is not just that He came to earth, died on the cross, was buried and rose again.  The good news is that He stands in our place before the judgment seat of God, on our behalf, and clothes us with His righteousness that we might be saved.  It is His work, not ours. I sat on the couch with my little girl tonight and told her the story all over again.  We marvelled together at the amazing truth that we, she and I, are completely unworthy and undeserving of God's grace and mercy.  As in Ezekiel, we were just dry old bones unable to pick ourselves up and dance without the breath of God blown through us.  And I took her to the Gospel.  The good news that Christ put on all our sin and filthiness and gave us His perfect cleanliness, his spotless cloak, as it were, so that we will one day stand before God as righteous, perfect people. The Gospel produces fruit.  The Gospel causes us to love Christ more.  Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commands".  Out of our love for Christ, we desire to obey Him better.  We, and our children. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have you read The Priest With Dirty Clothes? It's a parable of the Gospel, and it speaks volumes to little ones just beginning to understand the good news.  One Wintry Night tells the story of redemption and the Gospel from creation to resurrection.