Did you trust your elders when you were a child?
As children, it is natural and innate to believe what we are told. Almost one year after we start talking, we all go through a period of Why? I remember my daughter, Grace, asking me Why?, on repeat, when she was 3 years old. We rely on the adults and caregivers in our lives to teach us and help build our foundation, so that we can accumulate knowledge and learn to protect ourselves from the evil that can befall any one of us in this life. Hopefully, we are receiving guidance at a young age from responsible adults who are of righteous mindset and teach us truths from God’s word.
It isn't until we become more worldly and peers or adults start to mock us for being gullable, naive, or innocent that our hearts and minds begin to form a wall of protection to avoid further ridicule. As we learn to navigate and avoid further ridicule, we learn to hold our tongues. The number of questions we ask dwindles. And we become less connnected from those we use to rely on to provide the answers to our questions. We become more independent.
When I went back to college to pursue a nursing degree at the age of 46, I had one particular statistics professor, who was much younger that I was. What I witnessed in the classroom, was very disappointing to me. Fortunately, as I was much older and wiser than the first time I had attended college, I found my voice and used it. This particular professor liked to belittle his students who asked questions when they did not understand his explanation of a problem or his lesson. It was an unfortunate scenario, but I was thankful that I was not intimated by him and was able to speak up in support of the attacked college age students. Shame on any adult who is so insecure that they feel the need to ridicule another individual.
Unfortunately, this world can be harsh. We may believe in someone else's goodness without realizing that they are only human beings. Humans in general have selfish tendencies and lack patience at times when we should be more aware of others. Many responsibilities we are required to perform in life involve serving others.
God longs for us to hold onto child-like faith and believe that He provided a way to eternal life through Jesus, His Son. In return, our hearts and minds can remain open and exposed without risk of penetrable harm and the comfort that He wants His children to spend eternity with joy and love in His presence. God commands us to believe in His Som, Jesus and to love one another.
1 John 3: 18- 23
“Dear children,
let us not love with words or speech
but with actions and in truth.
This is how we know that
we belong to the truth
and how we set our hearts
at rest in his presence:
If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts,
and He knows everything.
Dear friends,
if our hearts do not condemn us,
we have confidence before God
and receive from Him anything we ask, because we keep His commands
and do what pleases Him.
And this is His command:
to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as
He commanded us.”
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