SUNDAY SERVICES:

It’s Lent - a season where our thoughts and attention turn to repentance, confession, sin, and the cross as we journey to Good Friday and then on to Easter.

A few weeks ago, our small group spoke briefly of sin and children, which sparked some reflection in me and I hope these stories might provoke some thoughts in you as well.

Are we born sinners? Ahhh…some ask, how can an innocent baby be born a sinner? Here are a few stories from my past, that will let you know I have been a sinner all my life, even before I knew cognitively what sin was! I may not have known it at the time, but oh my goodness….

The Hammer and the Table: Hiding the Truth

Children have a penchant for adventure, which can sometimes mean mischief, and lead us wayward.

Well, when I was a few years old, I had a brother only 11 months younger, and we got into trouble of all sorts – here is one example.

My parents had a glass-top coffee table and my brother and I took a hammer to it, broke it into many pieces, and then…what did we do? We hid all the pieces and shards of glass behind the couch – did we think our mother wouldn’t find them or notice? Who were we kidding?

At that age, we weren’t doing anything malicious, but we knew we were doing something wrong, as we tried to hide the evidence! Kind of a clue! Didn’t work, and it usually doesn’t!

Hiding the truth is a symptom of sin – we hide things we don’t want exposed to the light, don’t we? And, it separates us from God, or in the case of the coffee table, it put us in the doghouse with our parents – were there consequences? Well, surely (though I don’t remember), but did our parents still love us? Most certainly!

I believe that is how God is with us.

Kicking the Babysitter: Giving in to Peer Pressure

Another day, when I was perhaps 3 or 4 years old, my older brother and two sisters and I were taken on a walk by our babysitter around the block where we lived in Cincinnati.

My siblings didn’t like this sitter, and wanted to figure out how to make sure she never came back…so, they had me kick her! I got to do their dirty work.

Well, you’d think I would know not to do that, but NO, I did whatever my older siblings told me to do. I kicked the babysitter in the shins, probably hard; I was a pretty solid, (well, chubby) little kid.

I believe even as we get older, we sometimes bow to peer pressure or to those who we hold in authority and esteem, and fall into sin, even though we know it is wrong. It shows the brokenness and sinful state of us all.

Reggie Quinn: My Own Agenda

Here is the story that I must take full credit for – can’t blame any of my brothers and sisters for this one!

I was a first grader at College Hills Elementary School – way back when parents didn’t need to meet their children at school to walk them home – the safer times for sure.

Well, back to the story – I have liked boys for as long as I can remember, and I had a friend in first grade named Reggie Quinn. Oh, he was a cute redhead with freckles, and lots of fun, even as a 6-year-old. One day, I invited him to walk home from school with me to play.

Sounds innocent, right?

But I had not asked my mother.

So, we got to my house, and I hid Reggie in the bushes outside while I went in to see if it would be okay to have him over. OOPS! My mom said no, as she had other plans for us that day, and we could arrange to have Reggie another time…. uh oh….what to do with a cute boy in the bushes?

Do I say nothing and let the poor boy just stay there, do I confess, get in trouble (once again), and deal with the consequences?

Well, of course I couldn’t leave Reggie Quinn in the bushes!

We had to take Reggie home, and I bore my mother’s disapproval once more.

Messing up at age 6 – yet, my parents still loved me! And, continued to love me as I challenged them through the years. I know that is how our God must be as he sees us in trouble time and again and rescues us from ourselves and our sin!

We Can't Outgrow Sin

As I look back, there are so many times I have messed up – sometimes knowingly, and sometimes thinking I am doing right, only to realize later how I had done things that were not right, not loving, or downright sinful.

As a teenager, I know there were things I did and some I didn’t do that were horrible – and, no, those stories will not be on any blog!!! Growing into adulthood, you’d think we might be able to outgrow sin, but as long as we are human, we will be and we are sinners, no matter how holy or righteous we think we are – as children or as adults.

The Good News

The GOOD news is that our Lord died once for all for all our sins; he paid the price for each and every one of us and declares us righteous because of his righteousness. HE will ALWAYS LOVE US! Thank goodness!

P.S. The babysitter never came back. Reggie Quinn never walked home with me again. And, I now have my very own glass-top coffee table!

Did you get into any mischief as a child? Let me know in the comments below!

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