When our oldest started driving, we ran into a problem. With his new independence taking him places without his parents, he was frequently borrowing my credit card for covered expenses but oftentimes forgetting to return it or accidentally misplacing it. In a matter of six months, I had already replaced that card twice, and we needed a solution. Why not just get an additional card under his name on our account? It would certainly be convenient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, convenient<\/em> is a fantastic word to describe what happened. Not only was it convenient for our son to pay for his covered expenses with his own card, it was also surprisingly convenient to produce that card any time an expense popped up that he assumed should also be covered. This I did not see coming. Opening the next credit card statement, I was greeted by a large number of unexpected, additional charges with his initials next to them. I grabbed a highlighter and calculator, marking the charges and adding them up. This kid was in deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With approximately $17 to his name, my child had no way to pay me back. Of course, all I wanted was to forgive his debt and for him to learn a valuable lesson. But in order for him to truly learn, he needed to understand. So when he got home that night, I had the pages of the credit card statement on the kitchen counter with his charges highlighted in yellow. He was apologetic but also extremely overwhelmed by the reality of what he\u2019d done and how it had all added up. I asked some important questions and clarified some important rules, and then sitting with my son at the kitchen counter that night, I had the honor of forgiving his debt. And he was grateful\u2014more grateful than he would have been if he hadn\u2019t understood the cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I wonder if, in a small way, this is what reading Isaiah for Lent does for us. The prophet took the time to show the people of Judah the destructiveness of their sin and its consequences. Line by line, he showed them the severity of their debt. But he also prophesied: someone is coming to forgive it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The season of Lent encourages us to look back before we look forward. It\u2019s about holding our eyes open, looking fully at our sin, and then keeping them open wide to fully comprehend the hope of Jesus that is coming. In this season we\u2019re invited to walk toward our hope, but we must remind ourselves of the beginning. We review our charges and repent of all we cannot begin to pay. And thus, we approach the cross with the gratitude of a sinner forgiven. No longer debtors, but by the grace of God, sons and daughters\u2014coheirs of an eternal inheritance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m so grateful to take this journey with you for another year, friends\u2014to read the book of Isaiah and the Holy Week passages and acknowledge our mortality. We need Jesus. And as we approach the cross and the resurrection that will surely follow, we have this assurance: God will save His people.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When our oldest started driving, we ran into a problem. With his new independence taking him places without his parents, he was frequently borrowing my credit card for covered expenses but oftentimes forgetting to return it or accidentally misplacing it. In a matter of six months, I had already replaced that card twice, and we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":72103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[296],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lent2025"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71943],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"JUDAH ON TRIAL<\/b> When our oldest started driving, we ran into a problem. With his new independence taking him places without his parents, he was frequently borrowing my credit card for covered expenses but oftentimes forgetting to return it or accidentally misplacing it. In a matter of six months, I had already replaced that card twice, and we needed a solution. Why not just get an additional card under his name on our account? It would certainly be convenient.<\/p> Well, convenient<\/i> is a fantastic word to describe what happened. Not only was it convenient for our son to pay for his covered expenses with his own card, it was also surprisingly convenient to produce that card any time an expense popped up that he assumed should also be covered. This I did not see coming. Opening the next credit card statement, I was greeted by a large number of unexpected, additional charges with his initials next to them. I grabbed a highlighter and calculator, marking the charges and adding them up. This kid was in deep.<\/p> With approximately $17 to his name, my child had no way to pay me back. Of course, all I wanted was to forgive his debt and for him to learn a valuable lesson. But in order for him to truly learn, he needed to understand. So when he got home that night, I had the pages of the credit card statement on the kitchen counter with his charges highlighted in yellow. He was apologetic but also extremely overwhelmed by the reality of what he\u2019d done and how it had all added up. I asked some important questions and clarified some important rules, and then sitting with my son at the kitchen counter that night, I had the honor of forgiving his debt. And he was grateful\u2014more grateful than he would have been if he hadn\u2019t understood the cost.<\/p> I wonder if, in a small way, this is what reading Isaiah for Lent does for us. The prophet took the time to show the people of Judah the destructiveness of their sin and its consequences. Line by line, he showed them the severity of their debt. But he also prophesied: someone is coming to forgive it all.<\/p> The season of Lent encourages us to look back before we look forward. It\u2019s about holding our eyes open, looking fully at our sin, and then keeping them open wide to fully comprehend the hope of Jesus that is coming. In this season we\u2019re invited to walk toward our hope, but we must remind ourselves of the beginning. We review our charges and repent of all we cannot begin to pay. And thus, we approach the cross with the gratitude of a sinner forgiven. No longer debtors, but by the grace of God, sons and daughters\u2014coheirs of an eternal inheritance.<\/p> I\u2019m so grateful to take this journey with you for another year, friends\u2014to read the book of Isaiah and the Holy Week passages and acknowledge our mortality. We need Jesus. And as we approach the cross and the resurrection that will surely follow, we have this assurance: God will save His people.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"1","scripture":"Isaiah 1:1-31, Isaiah 2:1-22, Deuteronomy 11:26-28","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\nby Raechel Myers<\/i>
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