Page 7 - What Shall I Do - eBook

experience with children and when he was selfish or harsh with the children, I
resented him. When the children were disobedient and we would get impatient and
irritated, we also felt we could blame the children! And as I share with others,
they acknowledge that they have done it too. How sad! The children carry their
own guilt when they fail and also the parent’s guilt. But we kept trying to be good
parents, not realizing that we were just depending on our human love.
In 1970 we came home from our mission appointment in India and I went to

visit my parents. During my stay there, several of my brothers and sisters, who
were also visiting, brought up the subject of righteousness by faith. Some of them
had been studying the concept for some time. While discussing it with father, they
had expressed some ideas that seemed different from his understanding of
salvation. With me there, he hoped to get to the bottom of the matter. I was a
minister’s wife! I had been a missionary! I would have the answers, father

thought.
So, as my brothers and sisters described their new insights, father would ask
me, “Margaret, are they right?” Each time all I could answer was, “Father, I
don’t know.” I had been a worker for God but not really a student of His Word. Oh
yes, I read my Bible, but I did not understand how to feed on the Word so it would
become a power in my life. I was a surface reader!
As the discussion continued, father became more and more concerned. Was his

hope of heaven built on quicksand? His belief was, simply, believe in Jesus, do
your best to obey, and gradually you will overcome your sins. After all, isn’t
sanctification the work of a lifetime? And doesn’t Jesus cover our sins while we
are trying to overcome them as many teach?
So, during much of his life, he had tried to overcome his sins of temper,
resentment, irritation, impatience, strife, and lust, believing that he was always in

a saving relationship, covered by Christ’s righteousness, even while knowingly
sinning. Now he was hearing of the necessity of a heart-cleansing and then the
power of God to keep him from sinning, and that Christ’s righteousness does not
cover sin!
As the discussion went on, my father was not the only one who became
troubled. I did also, because I had to admit I knew nothing of righteousness by
faith. My religion was much like my father’s. Do your best to obey God! And since

my besetting sins were minor in comparison with his, it seemed as though I was
having victory.
Father was 78-years-old at the time, and had a heart condition that could
bring death at any moment. He knew that only the overcomer would be in heaven,

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