Growing in God

When my son found his four-year-old daughter watching a kids' cartoon he discourages because he considers it too old for her, Maddie said, "I tried not to look." Reading this on his Facebook post, I had to smile at her sweet innocence. She is obviously developing a conscience.

Visiting at their house last week, I heard her say a couple of times of some small mishap, "That was my fault." Wow! What a serious little girl, I thought. I mentioned this to Jamie, and he said, "Yeah, she and Anne-Marie are all about 'fault.' They're constantly arguing to each other, 'That was your fault!'"

The other night at Bible study, we were discussing Hebrews 13:7:"Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation." One person said sometimes leaders can be legalistic in their beliefs, teaching against certain styles of dress, etc. The pastor asked for reasons why this might be, and I said one reason might be the wrong interpretation of scripture.

For instance, our grandchildren had a high school pastor who said he wasn't allowed to play marbles as a child. His parents told him Jesus said, "Marble (marvel) not (that I said unto you...etc.") Cheryl Prewitt, one-time Miss America, said that as children they were not allowed to play with dolls, because her grandpa said "doll" came from the word, "idol." Perhaps, but it is innate that little girls like to play with dolls.

In thinking of the rules that come with legalism, I thought of something I heard on a teaching tape of a speaker at Jamie's church who was referencing Matthew 22:36, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" The Pharisees had over 600 laws, and they believed they were all equally important, so this was a trick question for Jesus. He answered that the greatest was to "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."

Then, by putting "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," in second place, He showed that some commandments were more important than others and silenced his questioners. Then he said, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets," inferring that by keeping these two commands, which summarize the Ten Commandments and other Old Testament moral laws, a person would naturally fulfill all the commands.

Thankfully, we don't have to keep a bunch of rules! Sorting out the Bible meanings can be confusing for adults, let alone children, evidenced by this conversation Jamie related the other day. Anne-Marie, 6, was reading her Children's Bible, and her dad remarked that Jesus and his family were Jews. Anne-Marie said, "We are Jews," to which he said, "No, we are Gentiles." His little daughter replied, "We are reptiles, too!" "No," he responded, "We are mammals!" We all have a lot to learn!