Skip to main content

Have You Heard the Whole Story?

I don't recall the sermon, or even the point of the sermon (which makes me exactly like most people who listen to my sermons), but I remember what happened afterward.

In that particular sermon I had included a story about David, the mighty King David, being a murderer and an adulterer. I came off the stage to my own children, Jacie and Luke, who were in shock. "King David murdered a person!?!"

Yeah, I would have loved to have some extra company over that day for lunch. Sitting over a crock pot of yummy Sunday warmth, while explaining to my kids how David, the man after God’s own heart, had eyes that wandered and had blood on his hands. Can you pass the carrots?

This isn't a rant about how we do children's church, because the Bible is so full of stories, I won't apologize that many stories focus on the positives of God and the people who follow Him. But my kids had somehow slipped by learning of David the lusting murderer.

This happens easily enough with teaching children. We focus on the fuzzy animals that got on Noah’s Ark, while glossing over the mass genocide happening outside in the rain. We talk about how the prophet Daniel got the big lions to play nice, while skipping over the part where the lions crushed the bones of Daniel’s accusers,… and their wives and their children. Yes, and we discuss David, the shepherd-boy who would be king, only giving brief mention to the parts that give movies an R-rating.

More recently my family was, once again, talking about the whole Goliath episode. Guess what else my kids didn't know about...the sword David used to cut off Goliath’s head! Does anyone remember the old SS song? Only a boy named a David, only a little sling...Well, this new info would make for an interesting new verse to be sung by children.

'And one giant sword went in Goliath's throat and David cut off his head...the sword went back and forth and back and forth.....'

You get the idea. (Yeah, we'd have to get a whole new set of felt board characters to tell some of these stories completely.)

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. ~Deuteronomy 6:4-9

That was a mission given to parents. One of the obstacles we have to completing our mission is not telling the whole story. Now, you might want to wait until they are out of diapers to tell them all the gory parts, but I do believe there is a reason we have these kids until they turn 18. 

Tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d