Before I had children, I think I imagined that there would be times, perhaps twice daily, when I would sit down with my children and dispense my great wisdom in daily bite-size chunks. My children, eager to ingest this great knowledge, would pull out moleskin notebooks and jot down these pearls.
Reality has been slightly less like a movie with a sensei and a willing student and more like Mike Brady trying to control the children from Married...with Children. Eye rolls and deep sighs abound, especially if I'm interrupting an important moment in their video gaming.
(Sigh)
However, there is reason to have hope. On a recent Sunday morning, I noticed my 10-year old taking notes during the sermon. This thrilled me because we'd been having some difficulties helping her adjust to Big Church. I looked closer and noticed she was writing down a scripture verse. My first thought was that she was a rookie note-taker. Everyone knows you just write down the reference because you can come back to that later. If I write something down, it's to copy a quote from someone.
As a pastor, who often listens to other pastors and speakers, I'm often waiting for that one line that sums up the last several moments of inspired talk. When I talk, I'll even give myself notice in my notes when I'm coming to what I think will be that inspired moment for others.
Yeah, I may have something backwards here.
Think about this for a moment. Should we value the words of man over the Word of God? That's an easy one, for those of you taking notes. For all the great words we have from Apostles like Paul and Peter, they were inspired from God. While everything else written for the Church and by the Church in the last 2,000 years may not included in the Bible, I think the same rule applies.
If it's truth, it's God's Word. You may want to write that down so you don't forget it.
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