I am so blessed to have my granddaughters live just a few houses away.  (Avery is 4 and Haley is 2.)  Today when I came home from work I saw my daughter with the girls standing in front of their house.  After I parked the car I walked down the block to see what they were up to.  My daughter Lauren was teaching the girls how to play hopscotch.  Avery explained it to me, “It’s all about squares and numbers and throwing rocks, Papaw.  You throw a rock and you hop, hop, hop.”  She and Haley proceeded to demonstrate several times and to my surprise I did not have to dodge any rocks.  Those girls learn fast.  I am so proud of the good mom that my daughter has turned out to be.  I am not surprised by any means as my wife was such an excellent mom to our kids.  But I just love seeing my daughter take the time to teach the girls about so many things.  She makes sure to teach them about everything she thinks is important… not just numbers and letters but other things too.  She teaches them the importance about loving the Lord, loving others and loving themselves.  She makes sure that they know what it means to be kind, considerate and respectful.  She even makes sure that they know about fun stuff like how to play hopscotch.

As Christians every one of us is called in some way to be involved in the teaching, training and development of others.  In the book of Titus, Paul calls upon mature saints to train up the younger Christians.  The goal Paul says is “so that the word of God will not be dishonored” (Titus 2:5) and “so that our opponents will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us” (Titus 2:8).  Seeing all of the good and wholesome things that my daughter is passing on to my granddaughters, I can only think about good things to say about her right now.  That is the way it should be for the church.  We should be so invested in encouraging, instructing and inspiring one another in the learning and the love of the Lord that others have nothing bad to say about us.  In fact we should be enjoying ourselves so much in the grace and love of the Lord that it ought to make others want to walk down the street and join us, just like a good game of hopscotch!   Until next time, stay strong in the faith.