(What's on your mind?)

So, first, isn't Facebook wonderful? And by that I mean that it provides an opportunity for the distribution of thought, and therefore expedites feedback, of those with whom you have contact.

Recently, I made a comment about Proverbs 21:12,

A man's ways seem right to him,

But the Lord weighs the heart.

and received a response from a good friend asking my own thoughts on moral discernment. I replied that morals, though partly inherent, are learned. Hebrews 5:14 says,

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Some might question my belief, quoting the reference to Jeremiah 31:33 five chapters later.

This is the covenant I will make them after that time, says the Lord I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.

However, I do not find this to be a contradiction. God promised to give us His laws, written in our minds, to be found in our hearts; but just like binary must be decoded to make sense to our mind, so must God's plan for our lives (though He gives us the encryption key, according to His will). When we come to a moral fork in the road, we must not just seek guidance through prayer, we must also seek guidance through the Word. The closer we walk with God, the better we will be able to discern right from wrong; and this is a discipline in and of itself.

After asking for some collaboration on the subject, another good friend offered up a different way to look at the picture. As infants, we are sinful from the womb, thanks to the Human Condition. Superficially we might find this unfair, but every single one of us sins naturally, like it or not. As young as we were, though, the immediate consequences of such sin are less intense, as we are incapable of not only understanding consequence, but also incapable of understanding sin (and this surfaces a whole other question about the age of accountability that I will not get into right now). Of course, sin is also sin, no matter how old you are, and the urgency is never any less. And so every child knows when he/she has done something wrong; and this is why children need guidance in their growth, immediately from parents or guardians, and as they grow to know Him, from God.

And of course Jesus said in Luke 18:17,

Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.

I know it is true for me I have believed in God since birth. Granted, my faith is different now; I'm less--innocent, I suppose. But children are a blessing to this world! A child that believes in God has a light shining through him that is so rare among adults, and it's not only obvious, it's infectious. As children we live with our heads cracked wide open, taking in the world like we never will again; and then we slowly sew our minds shut as we grow. This is such an obstacle for a Christian, because really, we are still children of God. We must continue to seek guidance and wisdom in the One who will never be misguided, or we will succumb to our sinful ways. And we won't even realize it.