1 John 1:5-10

"And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." 1 John 1:5-10 NIV

Earlier in the school year, my son came home with a disciplinary note from his teacher. This was not the first one this year and Josh knew that if anymore came home, we would be discussing disciplinary actions at home.

I had noticed coming home that day he had been quiet, but chalked it up to him being a little tired. As I do every afternoon once we get home, I went thru his papers in his backpack and, in doing so, discovered the note from his teacher. All I said was, "Josh, could you come in here? I need to talk to you for a minute." and he took off flying up the stairs to his bedroom screaming, "No, I don't want to talk about it!" He knew, even without seeing what was in my hand, exactly what I wanted to talk about. He knew he had done something wrong and the last thing he wanted to do was admit to it or talk about it .

We do this with God, too. We don't want to talk to Him about our sins. Maybe we think that if we overlook them, then He will, too. Or, more likely, we don't like having to admit to God that we sinned -- that we hurt another person, that we didn't help someone in need, or whatever our sin may have been.

In doing this, we cause a divide in our relationship with God. We bring darkness to that relationship and to our lives. We will only see God's light when we confess our sins, when we are open and honest with Him about the sins in our lives.

In the situation with my son, all turned out okay in the end. I gave him about half an hour to settle down and relax a little and then we started the conversation over. While he didn't want to, he did tell us exactly what had happened and we discussed what sort of punishment he would receive at home. Jeff (daddy and hubby) and I assured him that no matter what had happened, we always will love him. We hugged and we snuggled and even tried to explain a bit that we discpline because we love him so much. In the end, even though he knew there was a punishment, I could tell that he began to feel so much better as we came to the end of the discussion.

And, you know, confessing to God can be the similar. Oh, it is so hard as we begin to voice our admission of sin. But, God still loves us.... no matter what it is that we have done. As we confess He pours His love out over us and brings relief and peace to our hearts. We remain in fellowship with Him and see that God IS light.