Out of the mouths of babes
Chatting to her Grandmother, two year old Lauren said that her Mum had told her to do as Gran said. Gran confirmed that that was right, to which Lauren replied that she always behaved herself. Gran let that pass and and then Lauren said that the man had told her Dad off.
“Why was that?”, asked Gran. “For going too fast”, she replied. “Was it a policeman that said this?”, asked Gran. “No”, said Lauren.
However a little later she said, “Yes, the policeman told Dad not to drive so fast when he had me in the car”. Gran later confirmed that her son had indeed been stopped for speeding.
Talk about out of the mouths of babes, which incidentally comes from the Bible (Psalm 8 v2 King James Bible). You can't have any secrets when children are about.
Is God like that?
Some people think of God like that, as someone constantly watching to catch us when we do wrong or make a mistake. But nothing could be further from the truth. Yes He wants us to live a life pleasing to Him, but as He was the One that made us, He knows better than anyone that we are not perfect.
He gave us a mind to make our own decisions and although He is disappointed when we make wrong choices, He welcomes us when we acknowledge our wrong-doing and ask for His forgiveness. As the Bible says, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
And just as the policeman warned Dad that his actions could hurt little Lauren, at times we need to think about how the choices we make in life can adversely impact others, as well as ourselves.
How do we earn God's approval?
Well the bad news is that no matter what we do to earn God's approval, we will never do enough.
St Paul pointed out that we can never be good enough to earn God's approval, but the good news is that we don't have to, for by accepting Jesus into our lives and believing that He was God's son, we are made right with God. Of course that doesn't mean that we should stop trying to live the best life we can.
And that's one action that you don't need to keep secret!
The last word
“Jesus died for all, so that all who live might live no longer for themselves, to please themselves, but to spend their lives pleasing Christ who died and rose again for them.” 2 Corinthians 5 v 15 The Living Bible
