Could You Please Just Act a Little Less Mature?

Could You Please Just Act a Little Less Mature? 

Everybody has a childhood. It may have been good or it may have been bad. But we were all children at one point.  My childhood consists of knocking our neighbors' doors for sugar and doing school work on the beach, making friends with the mailman, and rolling my hamster in a barbie car down the street.  I think it’s really interesting asking people, “what is your favorite childhood memory?”, because it really says a lot about them.  Where they grew up, what their hobbies may have been, if they were close to their siblings, if they had any pets, etc… For some, best moments of their lives are when they are young.  Young consists of less worrying, gas money, and cognitive thinking.   There is something special about kids.  I work at a bounce house where kids come to jump around in inflatables and host birthday parties.  It’s a great job, because I literally get to be apart of a family on one of the most exciting days of a kid’s life.  With my personality and its lack of social boundaries,  I’m talking to kids like their my sister or brother and parents as if I grew up with them.  Awkwardly standing by laughing at inside jokes that I am unaware and excluded from. I just casually start telling stories of the kid as if I knew him or her. People are beginning to ask questions, “Who is she?”.  But then I quickly start singing the celebratory song: “Happy Birthday”, and he or she blows out the candles.  All spirits get high and mostly because they know in less than three minutes their stomachs will be full of color dye and whipped sugar.  I look  at these kids as they open their presents and accept every single one.  There is never a four year-old who hesitates, “are you sure? for me? Really? I don’t know. This Polly-Pocket could look really nice on your new granite counter top”. No, they just take it and say, “thank you”.  As I watch them open and accept; it made me think: how much we change as we grow.  Yes, growing up is a beautiful thing, and I thank God every day for puberty.  And having a car is way cooler than learning to walk (Okay, mom? so next time Elle does something really cool, like jump off a stair, show her a picture of my keys. That’s all I ask).  However, kids really have an innocence that God wants us to keep.  The Bible says that children are a reward (Psalms 127:3).  And in the beginning God says we are all children of God through faith (Galatians 3:26).  So we are considered a reward to God.  He says “through faith”.  What does that mean?  Later in the New Testament it says, “unless, we change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).  The words “little children” do not differ in the translations.  It was very clear what God wanted.  You ask, well I thought growing up would help me mature and understand God.  But God doesn’t want “understatement” to have precedence over “faith”.  According to psychologist and social scientists, there are specific characteristics that describe children. 

• Trust without questions
• Seek approval
• Are confident
• Want to serve
• forgive easily and forget quickly
• are eager to learn and acquire skills
• want good to triumph over evil
• are emotionally sensitive and thus vulnerable

Now, put into context a faith that will trust without questions, wants to seek God’s approval, is confident,wants to serve others, forgives and forgets quickly, eager to learn, wants good in the world, and is emotional sensitive and vulnerable.  No wonder God wants our faith to be child like! Jesus tells a woman, “… for it’s not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs”.  He is literally describing His message and ministry as “children’s bread” (Matthew 14:26).  His goal is for His followers to be children of faith.  So next time you cry because there are no more fruit snacks in the pantry, or think your cover of “I’m Yours” is so unique, you post it on social media, remember- your vulnerability and confidence is appreciated.  I think Benjamin Button knew the secret the whole time.

It's Time to be a Coward

It’s Time to be a Coward

I’ve grown up with a rough family.  Yes, there was love and nourishment, but if you were hurt, emotionally or physically, you learned to suck it up.  If not, my big brother would, “really give you something to cry about”.  Tears immediately found it’s way back inside my eyes, and all because a rollie pollie, A.K.A: my best friend for three minutes, was just ruthlessly killed by my big brother’s feet during a very intense capture-the-flag game.  Now, I’m no longer bitter about the rollie pollie.  I have made new friends since then. (Butterflies- they don’t crawl). But growing up with a family of rough and intense personalities, we were constantly trying to push ourselves to see who was the bravest.  For example, “Okay, here are the rules: you have to ride your bike as fast as you can without looking for cars or wearing a helmet, and I’m going to pedal after you at full speed and try to purposefully and dangerously hit your tire with my tire.  Meanwhile you’re going to be praying the tire doesn’t have too much friction to flip you over your handlebars.  Then, if you can still see and remember your name, you're it!”.  We played games like that pretty much my entire life.  But as I grow up, I have to remind myself, they are just that- games.  Being brave and trying to see how far you can push yourself is exhilarating and can impress all the kids on the block.  But God wants a coward, at least when it comes to temptation.  A lot of times we try to impress ourselves or others with our strength.  We want to see how far we can go without crashing.  In context to temptation, God wants us to leave it alone.  The Bible never says we won’t be tempted or we will never reach a moment when we have to make a decision against sin.  However, it does give us encouragement, instructions, and hope in those situations.  Second Timothy says to flee from temptation (NIV).  In other translations the Bible instructs to, “run from”, “stay away”, “turn away”, “shun”, or “avoid”, “turn your back”.  Being a huge language fanatic, I noticed in all translations, the verse begins with an understood “you”.  This automatically emphasizes it’s a command.  The Bible isn’t suggesting, “You should maybe probably could possibly run from temptation”.  No, it’s saying: Run. Run from it. Flee from it.  Stay away from it.  Shun it.  See at this moment, God doesn’t want one of His children to see how far they can go without crashing. He knows the power of temptation, and unlike us, He actually knows our hearts (Jeremiah 17:9).  So don’t dance around temptation, or try to push through it, don’t even entertain the thoughts of temptation.  Don’t give power to something that has none.  Just Run.  With that said, we all fall.  We have and we will. We have all fallen short.  However, guilt is not from Christ. If Christ is all good and beneficial, how can He create guilt?  Guilt is from the evil one.  It holds you back.  It holds me back.  It says, “Chloe, you’ve messed up here. BIG TIME.  How could you do that?  What happened to ‘running and fleeing’?  You failed.  You might as well not try to fix it.  You know you’re just going to mess up again.”  That’s guilt.  How is that Godly?  How is being stuck and not trying to make it right any part of goodness?  It’s not.  There is a difference between guilt and conviction.  Conviction is from God.  Conviction says, “Chloe, that was not good.  That will not bring you anything in life but pain and disappointment.  Turn your ways.  Do better.  Make it right, and move on to a better life He has in store for you.”  Conviction is hope.  Guilt is quicksand.  Guilt will trap you for a life time, if you let it.  Conviction produces light for a better future, if you let it. Sometimes, we all step on rollie pollies or flip over our handlebars.  Try to prevent the next injury by running away from the first sign of temptation.  And, if you do flip again, turn to the Living Word.  Let conviction bring hope.