Listen to Sound Teaching

     Our puppy has been tearing her way through stuffed animals. I had never thought to sew up a stuffed toy verses tossing it, until I visited my stepson's girlfriend's home and her grandmother was sewing up a stuffed chew toy. That seems like an obvious and inexpensive fix, but somehow until I saw it, it didn't occur to me. 

    There are good and bad ideas out there waiting to be learned. If we see others doing good then we are more likely to emulate them, but what do we do when we see others making poor choices and getting involved in bad activities? I had a friend visit and she asked where I kept the extra toilet paper. I replied that it was stored in the hall closet. She responded, "That's a bit inconvenient, isn't it?" In other word, if someone were to run out of toilet paper while in the middle of using the restroom, going down the hallway would have been awkward at best. I hadn't even considered that scenario, as I had always stored my paper products in the hall, and hadn't considered it to be a problem.

    Toilet paper, during the pandemic, at least initially became quite a commodity. Until I heard that others were hoarding it, I hadn't even thought about stores running out of it. It made me wonder how many other things I had missed, that until someone else pointed them out, I would not have given them much thought. 

    As a Christian for nearly 33 years now, I know more about what I don't know about walking with Christ, but as they say, the more I know the more I don't know. That is why a connection with more mature Christians, not necessarily older, but stronger is always a good plan in our lives. They can point out things in our lives that may not be pleasing to God or are acting as obstacles in our growth and maturity in our Christian walk, things we may have always done, and never realized were a problem. 

    The more time we spend in the Word and on the Word, the more the things of this world will be glaringly obvious as sins or stumbling blocks. As it is often said, that the best way to train a bank teller on counterfeit money is to have them work solely with legal tender; that way when they come across fake money they will inherently suspect it is fraudulent. That's how we should be as Christians, so connected to Christ and those who pour Christlike attitudes into our lives, that when we encounter frauds or sinful schemes that we innately know the difference and chose what is best. 

Proverbs 4:1-2 (NIV) Listen, my sons, to a father's instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching.

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