Spiritually Speaking
Rules
March 15, 2019
Our granddaughter is six. Our “living room” has several hundred square feet of open floor space, with just a few narrow columns to interrupt our play. As a result, Papa and “Binky” spend a lot of time doing dribble practice, swatting a balloon back and forth, and practicing our passing skills with a volleyball-sized tennis ball. She refers to the whole adventure as “Papa time.” There are two things you should know about Papa time.
First, she’s not above shaming me into playing with her or using our time together as an excuse to stay up just a little bit later at bed-time. Here is an example. “But you said we could have some Papa time before I went to bed! That’s not fair!” Depending on the day (and if her mother is in a good mood) we might just let her have her way and stay up an extra five or ten minutes. We all agree that time spent with the main male role model is time well spent. On other nights, we clamp down and enforce the rules because those are important as well. It’s been roughly 28 years since we we’ve had a six year old in the house, but I think we’re doing OK.
In addition, Binky loves to make up rules. We can’t just pass the ball back and forth; we have to have some sort of regulation on how the passes are made and how we add up the score. She’s a competitive little cuss and even when we try to quiet her desire to organize and evaluate, she just keeps spouting more rules. Does Jeff Foxworthy have a routine called, “You might be a teacher’s kid, if ...?”
Jesus struggled with rule makers and regulators while He was on the planet. The Pharisees could never “just play catch.” They spent their time with Jesus (the main male role model for the entire world) trying to get Him to play by their particular set of rules. In front of them was the One who knew all the right ways to “play the game” but they weren’t interested in learning. How often do we approach Jesus with preconceived ideas and regulations to govern our relationship with Him? To quote the Father, “Be still and know that I am God (Ps 46:10).” See you Sunday.
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