Children

Kids. You gotta love’em. I’ve been thinking long and hard about what to say and how to speak to the lessons that God teach us using children. First, when the Bible talks about children, it usually does so from one of three different perspectives: One is the idea of offspring. This is where we eventually find ourselves adopted in, becoming legal partakers of the inheritance rightfully reserved for TRUE offspring. Another point is the childlike "faith". The sincere trust that children place in those who care for them - humble submission. The last view is “childlishness”, this is the one I want to focus on.

Here’s The Word:

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

I remember when I first heard this verse, I was much younger than I am now and my mind went right to the idea of toys and the games we played as children. This understanding stayed with me for years until I really started maturing…like, past 30 years old. Funny thing is that this new revelation had been there right in front of me the entire time. The verse says basically that a child speaks, understands and thinks a certain way - a man should speak, understand and think as a man, not a child. Only a man knows how to stop being childish. Only maturity recognizes childishness and maturity. Childishness recognizes neither. My misunderstanding was the very thing that proved what I was.

That’s what makes children such an awesome example of teaching certain things about the truth of God, because although we may not be in a position to have children or even closely interact with them, we ALL used to be them.

Even though we try to talk in more refined and understanding ways, the Bible is dead on when it talks about the “foolishness” of children. It doesn’t mean that they are fools, it means that they are not mature and shouldn’t be expected to fill the roles of a responsible, learned adult. The logic follows: Connections that God’s Word makes with foolishness and folly readily apply to kids even when a direct connection to children isn’t being made.

Proverbs 14:29 He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

During our devotional time, me and my Mrs. were confronted with this idea from Proverbs. I thought about how selfish and “hasty” children are. Ever had to have long negotiations with a child on why it's a bad idea to eat desert before dinner, or why a set bedtime (and naptime) are important? The struggle is real, but why?

Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

It makes little difference if your child (or a child you know) is more quiet than most, lest tantrum-prone than others or whatever plusses or minuses affect your particular situation: In children, we get the purest form of what it means to be a sinful human being – evidenced in our selfishness. We want what we want and it takes time and effort to eventually attain to wisdom. Even when we think we’ve got all we need, add a few more years and we’ll find ourselves looking back shaking our heads at our impetuousness and how much more we undoubtedly have to learn.

Children are wonderful and nothing brings a smile to my face and joy to my heart than remembering the wonderful times I had with my children or even further back at some of the experiences I had when I was a child myself. However, I also stand in total agreement with the word of God that says –

3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than these things, that I should hear of my children walking in the truth

This verse rings true in regards to my children AND just as true when I consider the grace of God in teaching me His truths. I pray that you receive this as an encouragement. That you would consider the things you know and the things you learned growing up. There's an old saying "What you don't know can't hurt you." Now that I'm older, I'm pretty sure that a child was behind that. Take a fresh look at yourself and let the light of God’s Word both strengthen your wisdom and expose the folly that may still be lingering from your childhood days. It's a regrettable thing to assume that disregarding truth (or exposing and expelling foolishness) is of little consequence. It can affect innumerable things in unimaginable ways. Folly has a way of hiding and masking itself to the point that it avoids being “matured” and it causes many people, young and old to become (or remain) victims of very real dangers.

Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;


In Him,
Cros