Strong Minds & Full Hearts: Helping Our Kids Grow in Conviction and Compassion

We were on a walk around the neighborhood when one of my children responded indignantly to something they saw—a display celebrating something that the Bible does not condone. My first instinct was to make sure no one was around to judge us for being intolerant. But then I stopped to ask, “Why is my child more upset about sin than I am?” 

As I pondered this, I realized it was an opportunity to commend my child for their strong convictions. After all, isn’t that what we want for our kids—to know what God’s Word says and to stand firm against sin?

Yes, it was a perfect moment to commend this child for their commitment to following God’s ways. But it was also an opportunity to talk about compassion. In fact, as my children have grown up, I’ve realized one of the most important lessons I can teach them is to have strong minds and full hearts—to live with both conviction and compassion.

Humanity’s True Condition

When we were in college, my husband and I traveled to Italy for a mission trip to help with local outreach efforts. Before we went out to do any kind of ministry, the local pastor sat us down and had us read two passages, Ephesians 2:1-3 and Romans 6:6, which read: 

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Eph. 2:1-3)

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (Rom. 6:6)

Before we went out, we needed to understand the true condition of the people we would be passing on the streets: they were dead in their trespasses and slaves to sin. 

This image has stayed with me for almost twenty years, and as we walked around the neighborhood that day, I had the opportunity to share it with my child. It’s right for us to be upset about sin because it’s an affront to God’s righteousness and his loving plan for his creation. And it’s also natural for people who don’t know him to look for anything to make them feel alive, not understanding that they are enslaved to sin and only he can give them abundant life.

Compassion, Conviction, and Humility

In Mark 6, we read about Jesus feeding the five thousand. But before he does so, we read in verse 34:

When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.

Jesus sees these crowds and immediately diagnoses their needs. He understands them, and he has compassion on them. Notably, compassion is not the same thing as pity. Pity looks on in sadness, but compassion motivates action. So, he teaches them what is true. This is the perfect mingling of compassion and conviction, and it’s what we’re called to as we seek “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God” (Micah 6:8). We hold up the right standard from God’s Word, and we have compassion on those who don’t know him or the freedom and life he gives.

As we seek to guide our children in this, there’s the important component of “walking humbly” with God. The reminder our children (and we parents) need daily is the rest of that passage from Ephesians 2. Like our neighbors, we were once dead in our trespasses and sins,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:4-10)

Taking Action

When we recognize our true former condition and walk daily in gratitude for the grace we have been shown, we will want those around us to experience that same grace. And when we talk to our children about these truths—that we too were once dead in our trespasses and slaves to sin, but God showed us mercy and grace—we can help them grow in both conviction to stand firm and compassion for those who are lost. That could look like reaching out to neighbors, praying with our kids for opportunities for our family to share the gospel, and celebrating stories of fellow sinners being made alive in Christ. 

I pray our children will continue to grow in conviction and compassion—that they will love God’s precepts and his grace. Our world needs believers with strong minds and full hearts who walk humbly with their God.