This week’s article is based on raising our children to know the Lord, and while that is very important, indeed, the flip-side of this is that We should learn from them, as we grow into, and especially after we have reached, our old age…
Psalm 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go;
and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Forgot How to Pray? Well, Learn from this Babe!
Are We Too Old To Learn???
From Childhood, somewhere along the way – in an increasingly progressive manner – we lose touch with that central essence of tenderness and compassion and yearning for goodness, that seemed automatic in our youth… that innocence, which grownups made a fleeting fuss over, in wonder of our child-like perceptions…
The momentary wonder and surprising joy we experience when a child innocently cuts right to the heart of an issue of concern and caring for others, is quickly put to rest with statements like, Oh, how cute, it’s a shame they will grow out of it! … Or … Oh, to be that young again!
Or, any number of other statements that really just mean one thing: We will be trained out of the goodness of innocence, by the cold, cruel, world and the people that inhabit it.
But it doesn’t have to be that way!
We often speak of innocence with negative connotations. Innocence is often equated with Naivety — which is defined as, a lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment.
Let’s look at that; let’s break those three things down, as it pertains to living in today’s world:
(1) Lack of Experience: We grow increasingly callous, indifferent, and hard-hearted, as the clock ticks away and we experience disappointment after disappointment… both in circumstances and in the people who let us down, or do us wrong, or simply turn a blind eye to our need…
(2) Lack of Wisdom: When wisdom is based upon experience, it is no wonder that the heart grows hard… Repeated disappointment turns to resentment and resentment turns to hatred…Sadness turns to depression… Anxiety rules the day, smothering whatever joy would otherwise be experienced…
(3) Lack of Judgment: Well… One thing I sincerely believe we can all agree on: We have entirely too much Judgment (of the wrong sort) in the world today. It’s common practice to Judge the Character of those around us by the standards of appearance and our own negative experience… and if Experience has taught us to Judge People by Appearance, can we reasonably expect good to ever come of it???
But that is not the kind of Judgment we lack… but I will get to that in a moment…
Let’s Image, just for a moment, that the little girl, Arya, who prayed in the video, could grow up in a world where people cared and did not let her down?
Where people retained their innocence, instead of trying to get rid of it as soon as possible… or get rid of it before someone took advantage of them because of it…
Let’s Imagine a world in which the lack of experience was a good thing, meaning that people from every walk of life, would not attack others – physically, emotionally, mentally, or in any other negative way – where people would not simply walk on by — where no one would simply walk on by anyone in need…
Imagine a world, where being alone was only necessary for a quite time of prayer…
Imagine what lessons experience in that sort of world would teach us, and our children…
Imagine a world where we ask God – who has promised to give it generously – for Wisdom (James 1:5).
Imagine that Wisdom from God really is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, and impartial and sincere, as James 3:17 declares…
Image a world where everyone practiced both of these scriptures: Matthew 7:3 and John 7:24…Judge not lest you be judged by the same measure and Stop Judging by mere appearance, but instead judge correctly.
Matthew 7:3 warns and instructs against critical, hurtful, tearing down judgments and John 7:24, instructs us to judge correctly the issues a person has and then take the steps necessary to help them through their times of darkness, despair, or even errors in character…
Oh, what a world that would be!!!
Do you know what world we would then have???
We would have the World that Martin Luther King Envisioned…
We would have the World that God Intended…
So, yes. We need raise our children up in the way they should go… but we should also learn to go the way that our Children light so brightly, with their innocence and goodness and compassion and sincerity…
Just a thought inspired by this little girl, whose care, whose concern, whose love for others, has yet to be dimmed by the world… by us… by adults.
Yes…Just a thought… But did not every world-changing action begin with just an inspired thought???
What if we raised our children in the way they should go? Would they not change the world from the inside out???Would they not turn the world upside down???
After all, is this not what Jesus was, and still is, trying so hard to put into action???
