Lead a Child in the Way She Should Go… Part 1 of 2

Many of you, I am sure, have heard the verse, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6). I heard it as a child but it has only been as an adult when I have really understood it. As you know if you regularly read my blog, I have had difficulty attending church as I knew it with all the praise singing, the sermons, and the spoken prayers. And, I am sure, I still have some of those same issues. But, I have now surprised myself by turning back in that direction, needing to walk down that path and explore it with new eyes and a more developed voice.

This returning need has been brought about by not only the natural course of my journey, but by several experiences I have lately had. It seems our general culture has come to stand behind a phrase: “spiritual but not religious”. They want something bigger than themselves but they don’t want the discipline of religion or the box they feel religion will put them into. Or, maybe they want God without having to deal with God’s children. They want their individualistic beliefs without having to work those beliefs out in community. Basically, they want it their way, freedom of choice. Isn’t that what our culture is all about? Your way, all the time? No real commitment, no rules, a spirituality you can design and no one will tell you that you are wrong. Why? Because we have taken right and wrong and made much of it grey. Yes, we each have the light Quakers keep talking about but we also have the capacity to do evil too. I think we have taken what is in the Bible, cut out all that stuff about sinning and doing wrong, and only have kept that feel good, God is love, readings. We have forgotten our conviction.

Maybe it was a necessary part of my journey that I needed to let go of the idea of right and wrong and just explore for a while but I have come back to black and white knowing that even while the world is full of color, there are still morals, there are still right and wrong ways to behave and we have become so caught up in how we look, we have forgotten to pay attention to who we are. After all, it is not what goes into a person that makes them unclean, but what comes out. We have become so caught up in not offending someone, we have forgotten to lovingly call ourselves and each other back when we are doing something that God specifically told us not to. How can we be so afraid of what others think and ignore God?

For several years now, I have not read the Bible on a regular basis outside of seminary as I had been taught to do as a child. Lately though, I find I have really needed to pull it off the shelf, open it up, and take in what it says on those pages. At a time in my life when so much feels like shifting sand, I have needed the grounding, the truth, the Bible holds. I have needed to hear God’s voice in its pages filled with directions, guidance, and love. We wonder what God wants us to do so many times and it’s there, waiting to be read: don’t be rude, seek understanding, watch what you say, love the Lord your God. While there are many questions yet unanswered in my life, I know that if I listen for God’s voice and ground myself in his written word as I was taught, then at least I know I have sure footing as I seek what is to come.

365-09 #208