Giving a Kid a Quarter
WEST SIDE'S BUMP FOR THE MONTH
-August 2001
"If you are going to train your children to give as
disciples of Christ should give, than you better train them properly",
said the book.
How is this to be done?
"Don't simply give them a quarter on Sunday but have them budget out of
their allowance. Any other way is not as good as this and therefore
not appropriate."
What book did that come from? Matthew? 1 Corinthians? 1 Peter?
Well, actually none of them but a book written by a preacher telling
everybody else what was and wasn't appropriate.
Don't you find it interesting that there are so many people with
'the right (and by the way they come across, the only) way' to do
things even though they cannot trace their way to the Bible?
Why do these people have to come across in such a way to make it seem
like if you disagree with them you're falling far short compared to
them?
Take the above example.
Why does the writer believe that his way is the most appropriate way
and therefore all other ways are inferior?
Did God tell him? Well no.
If God didn't who did? Well, his own opinion!
Then why would he think to make his opinion the standard by which all
others are compared?
Thank God for the Bible and the freedom of Jesus Christ!
What Christians need to be reminded of when faced with people like that
is this:
if they are not coming towards you with a (properly interpreted)
passage of scripture, they have no right to make you agree with them
and you have no obligation to either. This will allow us to keep our
identity as parents, spouses, citizens and church members and we won't
become simple clones of the arrogant or highly opinionated.
Remember this verse "For freedom Christ has set us free. Be not
entangled again in a yoke of bondage." (Galatians 5:1)
Yes, there are times we must conform to a higher standard than our own
(James 1:25). But when not legislated by the Bible, we must make sure
we don't try to pass our opinions off as Divine legislation and 'the
best and only smart' way of doing things.
I am never to consider myself your superior in areas outside the Bible
(no matter how much I have considered the topic) and may you never have
someone try to steal your freedom away even in the name of "it only
stands to reason."
Our opinions are good for ourselves, let's keep it where they are good
so we don't ruin them. (Romans 14:22)
By the way, God has not said giving a child a quarter on Sunday is
wrong or even not as good as letting him take it out of his
allowance! --Drew Chapados
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