The twins love children's story. I'm not sure they are always listening... it's just fun to go up with all the other kids and collect the offering, etc.. Well, today Missy chose a spot on the platform right dead center in front of the story teller.
The point of the story on skating was that you don't give up when things are hard because you can always ask God for help and He has promised to help you. So, anyway, Becky was asking the 30 or so kids if homework was hard... Oh, no, apparently no one has trouble with homework. Was doing their chores hard? No, no, no one would admit to that, etc... so finally she asked them to give her ideas of what they thought was hard. Only one little hand shot up - dead center on stage. . .
Missy had something to say.
I cringed.
Would it be appropriate?
Was she even listening?
Did she understand the question?
Becky directed the question to her once again,
"What do you think is hard?" and put the mic under her chin.
Missy never batted and eye. Clear as anything everyone heard her say "OBEY".
There was a chuckle from every corner of those who know her . . .
I had to think about it, although I agreed with everyone who talked to me about it after church that it was an amazing little answer for her, I was still thinking, because what I heard was slightly different - I heard her say "Not Obey".
I thought and thought about it. Did she really, really mean that it is HARD to obey - which is very true for her, or was she actually trying to say something else? And it finally hit me.
She had meant what she said, "Not Obey"
because she is learning what we have been teaching her.
". . . The way of the sinner is HARD". Proverbs 13:15
She knows that while it is hard to go against inclination and obey,
life is harder when you do "Not obey."
She'd put the word HARD in the text with the word HARD in the question and the answer was that it is HARD if you don't obey.
We've been talking about this for weeks. Sin may seem easier but it leaves you in a hard place. You don't have to look very far to see what sin has done to humanity. The misery, the pain, the sorrow, the sad, hopeless lives people are existing in. I have sought to impress on the children, in every possible way, the truth of the Scripture: "Good understanding gains favor, but the way of the sinner is hard."
Having seen where these kids come from I know that unless they truly understand this and are converted they are headed towards a HARD life of misery and pain, destroyed relationships, perhaps jail or worse.
The sermon was on Epigenetics which the blogger spell check doesn't even recognize. I shouldn't even go there as I'm really not smart enough to attempt to share this. Tom has been thinking about this for weeks... He a scientist with a scientist's mind. He is reading and researching hundreds of studies and journals and he says the implications are fascinating and mind boggling and should absolutely make us think about and understand what God meant when He said in the second commandment and Exodus 34:7 that He would "visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation". God is not arbitrary. The sins we commit, the lifestyle choices we make, the thoughts and habits of our lives have an effect on our genes. The DNA does not change, but the expression of those genes can be altered. This effects our offspring for generations. (Google it, it's complicated.) I find the whole study is not really very good news for adoptive parents (actually any parent in this imperfect world)... The point of the sermon, of course, was not to discourage, but to help us to realize that the mandates God has given us in how we ought to live, act, think are not arbitrary, but indeed have an altering effect on our very bodies and minds and our offspring.There is a branch of epigenetics that studies the effects on the mind and brain that according to Tom are so deep and complicated that he struggles to understand the very language they use in writing the reports and journals.
I am horrified in this light at the twins' heritage and the mountains they have to overcome, HOWEVER, I still cling to the promises:
God makes no compromise with sin.
A genuine conversion changes hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong.
...
Christ's plan is the only safe one.
He declares,
"Behold, I make all things new."
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature."
2 Corinthians 5:17
2 Corinthians 5:17
Letter 105, 1893
When they choose the new life in Christ He can and will heal and erase some of those epigenetic expressions in their genes. This won't be an overnight process... sanctification is continual dependence on Jesus.
He sent His WORD and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Psalm 107:20Yes, kiddo, the way of the transgressor is HARD, so very very hard, but there is another option.
'I call heaven and earth to record this day against you,
that I have set before you
life and death,
blessing and cursing:
therefore choose life,
that both you and your children may live:'
Deuteronomy 30:19
5 comments:
Thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus!
He longs to break the bonds of wickedness and sin.
Let is start now in the life of the twins.
Because one family was willing to battle for their souls.
Blessings,
Summer
That sermon was something else wasn't it? It really makes you think about things a little differently! I am glad Tom brought us that! It was very cute when your little one said,"Hard to Obey". That's what we heard and you know...she is on the right track. She has a good Mama!
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