Published in Linda's Book "A Compilation of Thoughts,
Scriptures, and Devotions"
(Inspired by a conversation I had with my ten-year-old granddaughter, Avery, on April 25, 2014.)
John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father
seeketh such to worship him.
From the eyes of a child. . .
Children are a blessing
and an inspiration, if you will just “listen” to them. She saw something in me, and her Papa and she
wanted to know if everyone could be like “that”? It opened a door for me to
share a little grandmotherly wisdom with her. I hope it will be a help and be a blessing to you as it was with me. We love our grandchildren so very much –
each and every one of them are unique in their own way, as we all are! May our Lord bless them mightily, is our
prayer.)
“Grandma,
how come you and Papa Never Sin?” What?! Believe me I was quite shocked at that
question. Avery is always asking
questions like this, so our conversation continued as it always does with deep
concentration. I kind of laughed when
she said it – because we know we are all sinners by nature. And if you don’t
know that, the Bible says in Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; That means
ALL and that is ALL that means. We are
all sinners saved by the grace of God through the death, burial and
resurrection of His Only Son, Jesus. I
shared that with Ava, and she said she knew that. "We memorized that verse in school." So, I took the plunge and dove right in,
that’s all a grandma can do.
“What do you mean Avery,” I asked, “Papa and I do sin. We will never stop sinning until Jesus
returns and takes us to Heaven. We are all sinners.” “No” she said,” I know we are all sinners but
ya’ll never sin. I never see ya’ll doing
anything wrong. You don’t cuss, drink,
smoke, or listen to bad music or watch bad TV shows. You always go to church, and you work in the
print shop and church and Papa preaches all the time. You don’t even scream and holler at us kids,
when we do bad things. Ya’ll just don’t sin.”
Well, what a revelation to me. I don’t sin. Of course, I do, and so does everyone. But what touched my heart was as we talked
that she does not see open sin, as she calls it by name, in our lives. My husband says we don’t “practice sin”
meaning we do not openly or purposely sin intentionally. God forbid that we would be responsible for
exposing our grandchildren to sin purposely.
We may accidentally, but not purposely. So, I began to explain to her that she may not see sin in our lives, and
we are thankful for that, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t have sin.
“Maybe my sin is in my mind, you can’t see that Ava, or an
attitude that you don’t know I have towards another person or just looking,
hearing, going to places that might cause me to sin. Everyone does sin – but
the difference between a practicing Christian and others is that if we sin, we
ask God to forgive us and we make every effort not to do it again. We do not 'practice sin'. And, like I have said
before, if it does happen because we have a close relationship with God,
through prayer, Bible Reading and study, and attending church that the Holy
Spirit immediately touches our hearts and minds to let us know that we have
just done something sinful. And if we
have our hearts right with God, the very instant that the Holy Spirit has let
us know of the problem, we are already asking God to forgive us and help us to
never to do it again.”
I told her, “People have choices. They can choose to sin or not to. You can choose to lie to Papaw and Grandma or tell the truth. You can choose to
talk mean to your sisters or not. We all
have been given the gift of choice. We
choose what we do and where we go, but if we are practicing Christians, we will
limit all of those places and things to the “accidental sinning.”
Bless her heart she revealed to me, “Grandma, I do hate sin
especially when I sin. But I guess I
don’t think of the sins I do as so bad more than some of the other ones I
see. I know I shouldn’t be bad and lie
and talk ugly, but I was thinking of stuff like, drinking beer and wine, and
chewing tobacco or smoking or doing drugs.
I was thinking of people who date other people that are not their
husband or wife. You know BIG
sins.”
I had to tell her, “Sin is sin, big or small. You could murder a person and I could
blaspheme God, both sins – and maybe in our eye's bad sins. But it wouldn’t matter if you took a cookie
when I told you not to or if you told the biggest lie ever on somebody else and
they got in terrible trouble for what you said, it is still sin. Do you
understand?”
“Yes, thanks Grandma,” she said, “I’m glad you told me. But I’m still glad you don’t sin in front of
us. I want to be just like you and
Papa. I don’t want to lie, steal,
cheat, drink or do drugs or even listen to bad music. I want to be just like you.”
Again, blessed by a little child. I hope this helps you in some small way. Just
remember, you never know who might be watching you. What kind of impression do you want to leave
on your children or grandchildren whether they be young or old? I am no better than anyone else. I have a sin filled past, and I’m so glad it
is in the past. Those sins are covered
by the blood of my precious Saviour. Because
they are God is able to use me. But I am still a sinner, saved by grace. And I
am sure I will fail and sin again. When I made the decision to be a “practicing
Christian” – I made the best choice of my life. God took the broken things in
me and made me whole. I pray he will
always be able to use me.
“And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in
the hand of the potter; so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to
the potter to make it.” ~ Jeremiah
18:4
Dear Lord, thank you for the precious grandchildren
that you have given us. May we always be
Christ-like when it comes to all those around us. We love you Lord, Thank you for first loving
us. Amen
God has created each one of us… each so unique. I don’t know about everyone else, but I have things and circumstances in my life that are heartbreaking. And because we are all people that is going to happen. Sometimes our lives get tarnished with mistakes we’ve made ourselves, or perhaps our dreams get crushed by other circumstances. God loves us still. He looks down and sees the value of each one…me and you. He knows how to put the broken pieces together again, if we’ll but trust Him. The deep hurts and aches — He’s able to heal! Then, our life is able to take on a brand-new purpose. The past hurts and brokenness make us unique. Gods not finished with us! He’s still able to use us. We stand out beautifully in our own way because God always does a marvelous handiwork. LKMilam
God bless,
Tom & Linda Milam
Missionaries to America
Phil. 2:16
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