From the mouths of babes come some of the greatest teachings <3

I have been mulling over a brief teaching I heard recently from a young theologian I know. 

Okay. 

It was Caroline and she was practicing her spelling words and memory verse as I drove her home from ballet last night, but it was pretty solid. 

Since it is kindergarten, the memory verse is usually honed down to the main point. 

So from the back seat, I hear her sweet little voice say, “ 1 John 5:17. All wrongdoing is sin. 1 John 5:17. 

Then she says, “Lola, that is the shortest, easiest verse I have had so far. The first two words go together…All Wrong….and then the last two words go together….is sin. And then the middle word is just all by itself….doing.”

As I drove, I could picture the verse written on a pink index card by her mom and posted in the kitchen where we had practiced on Tuesday and then earlier before dance. 

The English nerd in me wanted to correct her and explain that actually “wrongdoing” is one word and so there is not a middle word, but hey. There she sat in her booster seat in all her cuteness and so I let it pass. 

But God didn’t. 

I have thought quite a bit about that little voice and you know, she’s on to something. 

All wrong, is sin. 

All that is wrong is because of our fallen nature, a fallen creation – which God calls sin. All that is wrong, ultimately goes against the way God designed things and causes all manner of problems in the trickle down.

And then in the middle of all that is wrong, we step in with our doing. 

OUR doing. 

The things we do that are part of our humanity, part of our selfishness, part of our desire to be independent and the master of our destiny and all the other things that mess up what could have been so good for us and for others. 

All wrong is sin and our doing, on our own, is in the middle of the muddle. 

It is up to us what we “do.” 

We have a choice about how our doing will reflect obedience or disobedience. Choosing right from wrong is up to each one of us. 

Thanks Caroline. 

Good lesson <3