Any influence of a 'sin nature' on children is dwarfed by the imitated examples of those who have cultivated selfishness by years of practice.

Paul's admonition in 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 shows that our man-made, legalistic rules for 'holiness' always have in them more proud fruit from 'the tree of the knowledge of good and evil' than they have a love for God or the leading of God.

We will never save our children from the filthy pig-pen of pornography by feeding them on the ungodly slop of body shame.

Selfishness is one of the principal fruits of the corruption of human nature; and it is obvious that selfishness disposes us to over-rate our good qualities, and to overlook or extenuate our defects.

One of the effects of original sin is an instinctive prejudice in favour of our own selfish desires. We see things as they are not, because we see them centered on ourselves. Fear, anxiety, greed, ambition and our hopeless need for pleasure all distort the image of reality that is reflected in our minds. Grace does not completely correct this distortion all at once: but it gives us a means of recognizing and allowing for it. And it tells us what we must do to correct it. Sincerity must be bought at a price: the humility to recognize our innumerable errors, and fidelity in tirelessly setting them right.

Purpose, meaning, and hope are the edge of a coin; on one side is imprinted the image of God; and on the other is self … As complicated as life seems at times, the mystery of fulfillment and the paradox of contentment are as simple as that.

What makes life complicated, I suspect, isn’t the choice between these two value systems and the paths they define, sin and holiness, so much as it is our unwillingness to make the choice between the two.