today this mom told us about harris teeter...north carolina's most expensive grocery store but frequently visited by those who like a clean shopping environmeny. she and her son were pooping around in the grocery when this large bottom woman walked in front of them and oh so queitly the son offered up his opinion about her dietary habits, "she must drink too much milk because her bottom is so big," the mom responded by saying, "we need to say nice things to people not mean and hurtful things." Later on in the day they went to eat some pizza and the little boy ordered a milk and when the waitress delivered it to his table he said, "your mustache is pretty."
obedient little boy. i recently read a study about child artists. a man who is known for his ability to communicate well with children has spent time visiting many classrooms - he always initiates his time with them by asking "how many of you are artists?" all the kids in the first grade class explode out of thier seats to make sure you know that they are A plus artists. in second grade their are similar results and in the third grade the stats shift a little and kids become inhibited by what they percieve themselves as capable of. about half the class will raise their hands. by sixth grade the number of artists has crashed and on avergae two kids are confident enough in their artistic talent to raise their hands.
i think this is what jesus christ was talking about when he said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (matthew 18:3) he wants us to become like the first graders believing that our powerful God can do anything. he wants us untainted by the ways of this world that pry on our confidence in something we cannot see, telling us unless we take matters into our own hands we will not suceed. we are called to be faithful-not successful.
i love deferring resposibility. i'd rather look out the window and shoot the breeze in the passenger seat than be the driver whose responsilibty is not to fun, but to the road and controlling the car. i'd rather take the other side of the closet than not have a roomate at all or have to decide which one is better. i'd rather paper rock scissors to decide which mutual fund to invest in rather than actually understadning those heart-monitor look alike graphs. i'd rather call mom to mapquest me home than actually learning why providence road just intersected providence road. why do we always love to defer resposibiltiy in this wanna-be adult life except for when it comes to our spiritual lives and our willingness to be lead into deep community with Christ. i want to be a first grader....well for a lot of reasons but mostly so glor will write messages on my lunch napkin....but even more because i want to beleive God to have the same power over my life that He had when he raised Jesus from the dead and I want to experience that kind of freedom.
