Naughty or Nice

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Yesterday afternoon and evening Ray and I did some shopping in nearby Cookeville. As expected, we saw leftover Christmas decorations on clearance here and there. On the way home I remembered one of them and mentioned it to Ray. “I saw it, too,” he said. Our reaction was the same: dismay.

The decoration said: “The line between naughty and nice keeps moving.”

That’s not true.

God wouldn’t leave us with instructions that move. He has given us firm commandments we can live by. And when we live by these, we really live.

I fear that too many people are getting their life clues from sayings on walls, mantles, and shelves. Sadly, many of those sayings are not true. Some, such as the one Ray and I saw last night, are actually lies. Jesus once said this about the devil: “There is no truth in him.” Jesus went on to say that: “Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Contrast “The line between naughty and nice keeps moving” with this clear teaching from God’s Word:

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence,
in your faith supply moral excellence,
and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 
and in your knowledge, self-control,
and in your self-control, perseverance,
and in your perseverance, godliness,
and in your godliness, brotherly kindness,
and in your brotherly kindness, love.
2 Peter 1:5-7

Thank you for training your children to live with moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Thank you for giving them clear lines that don’t move.

All Scripture is inspired by God
and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke,
for correction, for training in righteousness; 
so that the man or woman of God
may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17

 

 

 

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