Faithful Writers

Once the heavens burst open, the Scriptures tell us that it rained day and night for 40 days. As I mentioned before, numbers in the Bible have great symbolic meaning. Next to the number 7, the number 40 is the second most used number in the Bible. The number 40 signifies a period of trial or testing. Here are some instances where the number 40 is used. 1) Yeshua fasted for 40 days and nights before being tempted by the devil. 2) Moses was on Mount Sinai without food for 40 days. 3) The 12 scouts who went to spy out the land of Canaan were in the land for 40 days. 4) Ninevah was given 40 days to repent before being destroyed by God. 5) When a mother gives birth to a new child, the amount of time required for purification is 40 days. 6) Both King David and King Solomon ruled Israel for 40 years. 7) Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca. © Richoka

In the story of the Tower of Babel, we encounter a couple of interesting Hebrew words. First, in Genesis 11:4 when it says they were building a tower so “they could make a name for themselves”… The original Hebrew says they were building a tower so that “they could make a shem for themselves." “Shem” is the Hebrew word for name, and unlike in our culture, a person’s name wasn’t just a means of identification. A person’s name refers to their reputation. It was what they stood for. This creation of the tower was a form of idol worship. It was to stand as a testament to the people’s supreme fleshly confidence in their feats of technology. Incidentally, the fear the people had of being scattered is understandable. History has shown that when any given group of people has been dispersed from their homeland… Within two or three generations, that group of people has become extinct. So the building of that tower was a fleshly attempt to maintain their legacy and preserve their posterity for generations apart from God. Now in the original Hebrew, the reason given as to why God was displeased is because the “people were echad." “Echad” is the Hebrew word for “one” and it is the same word used in the verse, “ The Lord our God, the Lord is one ." So while one would normally consider oneness to be a positive quality, in this case, God was against it. Why? The answer is very simple. It was not God-approved oneness. Peace without God is no peace at all. Do you remember when I talked about the Principle of Opposites? This is a scientific principle woven into the fabric of our universe. In simple terms, it means that basically, everything in our universe has to have its perfect opposite. If there is an up there has to be a down. If there is male, there has to be female etcetera. So here’s an interesting question If everything in our universe has its perfect opposite… What would be the perfect opposite of what occurred at the Tower of Babel? The answer would be the Day of Pentecost. Do you see the contrast with the Tower of Babel? At the Tower of Babel, the “human spirit” was the driving force behind the construction of the Tower. However, on the day of Pentecost, it was the “Holy Spirit” that was the driving force. One spirit resulted in disarray. The other spirit resulted in unity. Interestingly, in both cases, God used language to achieve his purposes. In the first instance, he used different languages to foil the plans of men. In the second instance, he used different languages to bring men together. CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT “The festival of Pentecost had arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak .”- ACTS 2:1–4 © Richoka

The questions we’re afraid to ask might be the ones that grow our faith the most Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash I used to think doubt was the enemy of faith. Like termites chewing through the beams of belief, leaving the whole thing ready to cave in. That’s what I was told anyway. But somewhere along the way, that neat little box I’d kept my faith in started to rattle. Prayers felt quiet. Scriptures didn’t land like they used to. And the answers I once clung to began to feel thin, like fabric worn down by too many washings. I didn’t walk away from faith — but I did start asking harder questions. And wouldn’t you know it, that’s when something deeper began to grow. Can Doubt Actually Lead Us to Deeper Truth? We treat doubt like it’s a slippery slope to atheism. But what if it’s just a natural part of the journey toward an honest, resilient faith? If I never questioned anything, was I really believing — or just parroting what I was handed? Real faith isn’t scared of questions. God certainly isn’t. In fact, some of the most faithful people in scripture — Job, David, even Jesus in Gethsemane — wrestled, doubted, and cried out in the dark. If God is real, then truth can withstand our questions. If not, then maybe it wasn’t truth to begin with. What If Certainty Is the Real Opposite of Faith? We’ve made an idol out of certainty. But Jesus never said, “Blessed are the ones who have all the answers.” He blessed the poor in spirit, the seekers, the ones hungry for righteousness. Faith, by definition, involves trust in the unseen. That doesn’t sound like airtight proof to me. Faith isn’t a brick wall — it’s more like a rope bridge. It sways. It creaks. Sometimes it feels terrifying. But it still holds. Why Do We Shame the Very Questions That Could Set Us Free? I’ve seen too many people pushed out of church for asking honest questions. Too many told they’re “backsliding” just because they’re trying to make sense of their spiritual pain. That’s not what Jesus did. He didn’t shame the doubters. He invited them closer. Thomas wasn’t cast out — he was welcomed with wounds wide open. The Thomas story tells me that Jesus doesn’t demand blind belief. He offers presence. He shows up in the middle of our uncertainty. You may ask, “Well, what about Jesus saying to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet still believe.” (Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus first appeared to His disciples. The thing is, I don’t believe Jesus was shaming Thomas and requiring blind faith if he were a true follower. Jesus isn’t shutting Thomas down; he’s widening the circle to include all of us who live in the shadow of mystery and still dare to believe anyway. What If Doubt Is Holy Ground? I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t trust the ones who claim they do. But I’ve come to believe that doubt — honest, aching, soul-searching doubt — isn’t the opposite of faith. It’s part of it. Maybe even the doorway into it. If you’re in that place, you’re not alone. And you’re not broken. You’re growing. You’re searching. And sometimes, that’s where the real encounter happens — not in the certainty, but in the sacred space of not being certain about everything you’re supposed to believe. So go ahead.Ask the hard questions.Wrestle in the dark.God isn’t offended. © Gary L Ellis

In Genesis Chapter 10, we are told that the start of Nimrod’s kingdom began in Babylon, Erec, and Accad. Now, all of these cities were located in a place called the Land of Shinar ( modern-day Iraq in our times ). Furthermore, in Genesis Chapter 11, we are told the following: It came about that as they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shin‘ar and lived there. -Genesis 11:2 So the construction of the Tower of Babel was being spearheaded by Nimrod himself. Let’s talk a little bit about Nimrod because there is much more to him than meets the eye. Nimrod was born from Cush who came from the cursed line of Ham. Nimrod took a lady named Semiramis to be his wife. Semiramis proclaimed herself to be the Queen of Heaven. After Nimrod died, his wife proclaimed him to be God. They had a son who was named Tamuz. Now, interestingly, Tamuz was considered to be the reincarnation of the God-man Nimrod. So we have Nimrod , who is God the father, Semiramis, the queen of heaven, who is considered to be the mother, and the son , who is considered to be the incarnation of the father. Doesn’t this teaching strangely resemble something you may have learned in a Christian church? Can you see how the Christian teaching of the Trinity had its origins in paganism? Just know this. All false religions have their beginning in Nimrod. These are also known as the “Mystery Babylon Religions." No wonder the Jewish people have always been at such odds with Christianity. It is interesting to note that the names of Nimrod and Semiramis have changed throughout the centuries, depending upon which culture and language they appeared in. Here is a brief snapshot of the names that Nimrod and Semiramis went by as they were adopted by different cultures. In the Bible, Nimrod is also known as: -Baal-Ninus (the god-man who built Ninevah),-Marduk-Mulch Semiramis (as the mother of all mothers was considered to be the fertility goddess): -In Egypt, her name was Isis-In India, her name was Indrani -In Asia, her name was Cybelle -In Canaan (now the holy land), her name was Ashtoreth or Astarte -In modern-day English, her name is now Easter It is also interesting to note that although the word Babel now means disorder and confusion… It originally meant the “City of God." Remember, “el” means “god." Look closely at the spelling of the word “bav-el." We know from the account of the Tower of Babel that all the languages of the world originated from one language. However, it is also true that all the pagan religions of the world have their origin from that one source as well. “Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it … From Egypt came the ideas of a divine trinity” (The Story of Civilization, Caesar and Christ, Will Durant, Part III, 1944, p. 595). © Richoka

From verse 10, we have the lineage of Shem recorded. The primary purpose of this lineage is to introduce us to Abram. Abram, who will later have his name changed to Abraham, is both the father of monotheism and the nation of Israel. Amidst a sea of names and genealogies that can be quite confusing, here is an effective way to logically organize this part of the Bible in your head. -There are 10 generations from Adam to Noah. -The tenth generation of Noah has him begetting three sons: Ham, Japheth, and Shem -There are 10 generations from Shem to Abraham. -The 10th generation ends with Terah begetting three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. It is also interesting to note that the number of years from the birth of Shem’s son to Abram’s migration to Canaan is exactly one solar year of 365 days. Finally, take a look at verse 31. “Terach took his son Avram, his son Haran’s son Lot, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Avram’s wife; and they left Ur of the Kasdim to go to the land of Kena‘an. But when they came to Haran, they stayed there. ” Although it is generally assumed that it was Abraham who first received the call from God to set out for the land of Canaan, according to this passage, it seems like it was Terah who first got the call. At the time, Terah and his family resided in the city of Ur of the Chaldees which was an ancient culture of that area. Sumer was the area’s name with Ur being the capital city. It was a very wicked place where worship of the moon-god Hurki was prevalent. Today this moon-god goes by the name Allah. So we are told that Terah set out for the land of Canaan but instead of completing his journey he decided to stay in another city somewhere in the Mesopotamian region. I believe there is an important spiritual lesson for us here. How many of us have been called by God to fulfill a plan He has for our lives but due to the pressing cares and circumstances of this world, we let ourselves become sidetracked? I suspect this is what happened to Terah. As a result, God ended up using Abram to fulfill His divine plan of creating a people unto Himself. CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT “The seed sown on rocky ground is like a person who hears the message and accepts it with joy at once, but has no root in himself. So he stays on for a while; but as soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, he immediately falls away. Now the seed sown among thorns stands for someone who hears the message, but it is choked by the worries of the world and the deceitful glamor of wealth , so that it produces nothing.” -Matthew 13:20–22 © Richoka

When faith was not a brand Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash There was a time when being Christian meant you might be fed to lions. Now you can buy Jesus merch at Target. Somewhere between the cross and the conference stage, we lost the plot. Christianity didn’t launch from palaces or polished pulpits. It started out in the dust, at the edges, whispered in alleyways, and shouted from hillsides. A Strange Little Crew A strange little crew gathered around a carpenter — no crown, no title — just calloused hands and truth in His words. His followers? Not exactly society’s finest. Fishermen who smelled like the sea. Women silenced by culture. A tax man nobody trusted. A stew of the overlooked and unwanted. And this carpenter from Nazareth? He spoke in riddles that rattled the rich and comforted the poor. “The last will be first,” he said with a glint in his eye, flipping more than just expectations. He flipped tables — literally — sending coins clattering and priests scowling. He called peacemakers blessed, but never promised peace would be easy. His kingdom wasn’t built with bricks or swords — it came in stories, in scars, in a love that broke rules and raised eyebrows. This wasn’t a religion polished for prime time. It was a revolution dressed in sandals. It wasn’t built for power. It was a protest against it. So, how did we get from there to here? From house churches to $60 million sanctuaries. From martyrs in the arena to pastors with private jets. From “take up your cross” to “God wants you to be rich.” When Faith Was Not a Brand Early Christians had no buildings, no budgets, and no political clout. What they had was a radical sense of community and a stubborn belief that love was more powerful than fear. Rome saw them as a threat because they refused to bow to Caesar. That refusal got them killed. But in the 4th century, everything changed. Constantine converted. Christianity went from persecuted to protected, then to preferred. Eventually, it became the official religion of the empire. That’s where the trouble started. What had been a grassroots movement of outcasts became a religion of kings and conquerors. The cross, once a symbol of execution and resistance, was hoisted as a battle flag. Instead of challenging the empire, Christianity became part of it. As author Diana Butler Bass puts it: “Christianity ceased to be a community and became a hierarchy.” Trading the Cross for Comfort and Control Power is seductive. Once the church had a taste of safety and influence, it started protecting those things at all costs. Doctrine hardened. Dissent got punished. Crusades were launched. Colonies were claimed. People were burned at the stake in the name of the Prince of Peace. We started baptizing empire instead of challenging it. And somewhere in all of that, the revolutionary heart of Jesus’ message got buried beneath dogma and gold. The Gospel stopped being about liberation. It became about control. And yet, Scripture never changed. Jesus still said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” He still told the rich man to sell everything. He still warned that you can’t serve both God and money. He still stood with the outsider, the sinner, the oppressed. But we made him safe. Marketable. Vote-able. We made him white, straight, American, and always on our side. Voices Refusing to Stay Silent Progressive Christian leaders have been sounding the alarm. Rachel Held Evans wrote , “When the gospel has become bad news to the poor, to the oppressed, to the brokenhearted, we have replaced Jesus’ words with our own.” Richard Rohr says, “The price for real transformation is always some form of suffering. But churches often protect people from that.” And Rev. Jacqui Lewis reminds us: “If your gospel isn’t good news for everyone, then it’s not the gospel of Jesus.” These voices aren’t trying to destroy Christianity. They’re trying to remember what it was. They’re digging through the rubble of empire to find the radical, liberating Jesus underneath. Middle Age, Middle Ground, and a Crisis of Faith Middle age is a funny time. You start to see behind the curtain. You start asking harder questions. Maybe the faith you grew up with doesn’t make sense anymore. Maybe you watched it cause harm. Maybe you’re wondering if there’s still something worth holding onto. There is. But it might not look like what you were handed. Real Christianity — the kind that makes the powerful nervous and the hurting feel seen — is still alive. It’s just not always on TV. You might find it in a community garden, in a recovery meeting, in a group of misfits gathering in someone’s living room. You might find it in the margins, where it started. Jesus didn’t come to build a brand. He came to set captives free. To call out hypocrisy. To tear down walls. To remind us that the kingdom of God doesn’t look like a throne — it looks like a table. Reclaiming What We Lost Without Burning It All Down We don’t have to burn it all down. But we do have to stop pretending the system we built is the same as the faith we inherited. We can let go of the version of Christianity that cozies up to power, and reach for the one that walks with the broken. We can choose humility over certainty, love over control, and people over policy. In the words of the prophet Amos, which still echo today: “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me… But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:21,24) This is not about nostalgia. It’s about rediscovery. Not of a church that once was, but of a Savior who still is. And maybe that’s the invitation: not to give up on faith, but to follow it back to where it began. With the outcasts. With the misfits. With a carpenter who said there was another way. © Gary L Ellis

Let me say it another way: The Gospel doesn’t need a glow-up, a rebrand, or a marketing team. It doesn’t need to be wrapped in skinny jeans or delivered by someone with a TikTok following and a smoke machine. What it needs — what it’s always needed — is a person bold enough to live it out with honesty and imagination. You. Me . Regular, middle-aged humans who’ve seen some things. People with bills, back pain, doubts, and decades of faith wounds. We don’t need a better version of the Gospel. We just need a better version of us — one that’s brave enough to take Jesus seriously when He said, “Follow Me.” Not a Selfie, a Story Somewhere along the way, a lot of us traded the Gospel story for a spiritual selfie . We made it all about personal salvation, getting into heaven, and behaving well enough to earn a gold star. We trimmed the rough edges off of Jesus — those moments when He flipped tables, challenged religious leaders, and spent His days with the outcasts and the overlooked. We made Him polite. We made Him palatable. But friend, Jesus wasn’t safe. He was love with legs. Fire with skin. He didn’t come to tidy up religion. He came to blow the hinges off the temple doors and let the riffraff in. And He wasn’t asking for cosmetic changes. He was inviting transformation. Gospel Means Good News — Not Good Behavior So, what is the gospel? Well, the word “gospel” literally means good news . — Not good advice . Not good vibes . Not good intentions . But, Good News. Isaiah 52:7 (ESV) “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news , who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’”God’s love showed up in the dirt.The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:14). Rachel Held Evans said, “God stoops. The God of Scripture stoops. He kneels. He writes in the dirt.”— From her reflections on John 8. Rachel is also quoted as saying: “This is what God’s kingdom is like: a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table… not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, and because they said yes.” The Gospel invites us to stop performing and start participating. Honesty Isn’t a Liability A lot of us feel like we’ve got to clean up before we show up. Even at church. Maybe especially at church. You walk in with grief, doubt, anger, or that nagging question you can’t shake — Does any of this still make sense? And what do you hear? “Just have more faith.” “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” “Everything happens for a reason.” But honesty is not the enemy of faith. Pretending is. The Gospel is for real people with real problems. Not plastic saints. Not Pinterest-perfect Christians. If you’re struggling, good. It means you’re alive. It means you care. The Bible is packed with people who wrestled with God — Jacob, David, Job, even Jesus in Gethsemane. Jesus doesn’t flinch at our honesty. He knelt in the dirt with a woman caught in adultery.He let Thomas touch His wounds.He called Peter back after his betrayal — not with a lecture, but with breakfast. So if your story feels a bit chaotic — or even more than a bit — you’re in good company. The Gospel was never a neat story. It was a true one. Imagination Is Faith’s Playground Now, let’s talk imagination.Not unicorns and glitter. I mean Spirit-filled imagination. The kind that lets you see the Kingdom of God breaking in around the edges of your everyday life. Because let’s be honest, adulting is exhausting. We’ve got spreadsheets, errands, and a slow drip — and sometimes a river — of cynicism from the news cycle. But Jesus said the Kingdom belongs to children — not because they’re naive, but because they still look for wonder . Faith without imagination is just routine. But with imagination? The Gospel becomes electric. A living thing. It turns interruptions into invitations, ordinary days into holy ground. It asks: What if forgiveness isn’t weakness, but revolution? What if kindness to your cranky neighbor is sacred resistance? What if the slow, quiet work of love is more world-shaking than a viral sermon? As Frederick Buechner put it, “The world says, Mind your own business. Jesus says, There is no such thing as your own business.” When the Gospel Is Lived, It Doesn’t Need Hype When you live the Gospel out loud, it doesn’t need PR.You don’t have to sell it. Live like you believe love is stronger than hate.Live like grace is real, like second chances are normal, like no one is disposable. Live like Jesus meant it. You know what’s more powerful than a polished sermon? A life that smells like Jesus. That shows up when someone’s in the hospital. That listens instead of preaching. That loves without keeping score. Galatians 5:6 says, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” That’s it. Not perfect theology. Not church attendance. Not political alignment. Just love. Lived out in the real, raw, unfiltered middle of life. Summary: It Never Needed a Makeover — Just a Mirror If the Gospel feels stale or powerless, maybe it’s not the message that needs changing.Maybe it’s just waiting for us to live like it’s still good news. We don’t need to modernize it.We don’t need to soften it. We just need to remember it . To embody it . To risk it — in conversations, relationships, everyday kindness, and bold love. Because the Gospel still has the power to heal, restore, flip tables, and raise the dead parts of us to life. But only if we’re brave enough to stop editing it and start embodying it. Key Takeaway : The Gospel doesn’t need a makeover — it needs you to live it with honest doubt, wild grace, and a little holy mischief. Let the world see a love too stubborn to quit and a hope too loud to hide. © Gary L Ellis

Today, we begin Genesis Chapter 12. For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here . For the King James version, click here . In Genesis chapter 11, we are told that Terah, his son Abram, his grandson Lot, and his daughter-in-law Sarai left their hometown called the Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the Land of Canaan. However, for whatever reason, Terah decided to cut his journey short and settle everybody in a place called Haran. Terah ends up dying in Haran. This is the end of Chapter 11. Then, in the first verse of Chapter 12, we are immediately told that God commanded Abram to leave his native land to a “ land I will show you ." Based on this narrative, one would automatically assume that Abraham received his call from God in the land of Haran. However, let’s take a look at the first two verses in Chapter 7 of The Book of Acts. “Then the high priest said, ‘Are these things so?’. And he said, ‘Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran , and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you.” So if this eyewitness account in Acts is also taken into account, it appears that God called Abram during his journey to Haran and not after he arrived in Haran. Regardless of when exactly he received the call from God, it is obvious that Abram’s family was steeped in paganism. Haran was the crossing point of multiple important highways and a center of the cult devoted to the moon-god Sin. That’s right. The name of this god was actually “Sin." © Richoka

When reading Scripture, do you ever come across a verse that just stops you dead in your tracks? For me, Genesis 5:24 is one of those verses. “And Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God took him. ” In stark contrast to the lists of other people, it appears that Enoch was granted the privilege of skipping the usual dying process most human beings are subjected to and taken straight to heaven. In fact, besides Enoch, only the prophet Elijah was granted such a privilege. What’s this all about? In some evangelical circles, the story of Enoch is used to teach a pre-tribulation rapture. They say that Enoch is symbolic of the Gentile Christian church and the flood is symbolic of the great tribulation. So Enoch being whisked away before the coming flood is prophetic of how the Christian church will be whisked away before the great tribulation, leaving the Jews behind who will then come to a realization that Jesus is their long-awaited Messiah. As the popular refrain goes, “ The purpose of the tribulation is for the salvation of the Jewish nation ." As much as I would like for the rapture to occur before the tribulation, I have difficulty accepting this teaching because I don’t believe the Scriptures teach that God has two salvation programs, one for the Jews and one for the Gentiles. I am adamant in my insistence that God for His own good reasons and purposes has chosen to save ONLY ONE group of people on this planet, and that group is the Jews and those Gentiles who join themselves to the Jews by accepting His new covenant through the shed blood of Messiah Yeshua. So what in the world happened with Enoch? Why was he so special? What can be gleaned from the limited information we are given? And what lesson can we derive from the story of Enoch? It is apparent that Enoch’s walk with God was of such an intimate nature that God made a special exception and took him straight to heaven. Hebrews 11:5 says that “ By trusting, ” he was taken away without having to suffer the indignities of growing old and dying. I think the biggest takeaway is that God has special treasures and pleasant surprises reserved for those who TRUST in Him. We live in a very cynical and pessimistic world. We are constantly surrounded by people whose only source of self-esteem is the money they have in their bank account and their place in society. Or the hedonists who live only for sexual pleasure. And lest you think I’m pointing fingers, I’m just as guilty as harboring these attitudes as anybody else. The Apostle Paul was right. There is nobody in this world that cares about the things of God or the Word of God. And I regret to say that such attitudes are just as prevalent among those in the church as well as out. I believe that what God did with Enoch is a strong statement to an unbelieving world. God is telling us that everything you think you know about reality and about how this world works is WRONG, DEAD WRONG! God is saying if your value system is NOT 100% based on me, you’re in for a rude awakening. He is essentially telling us that… …”I am in control of both LIFE and DEATH. And I have the power to take a man who trusts in Me and whisk him away to heaven if I so please.” And here is the great statement from the Bible that God has left to an unbelieving world. “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” -Acts 17:31 I’m done. CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT Luke 3:37: of Metushelach, of Enoch, of Yered, of Mahalal’el, of Keinan, Hebrews 11:5: By trusting , Enoch was taken away from this life without seeing death — “He was not to be found, because God took him away” — for he has been attested as having been, prior to being taken away, well pleasing to God. Jude 1:14–15: Moreover, Enoch, in the seventh generation starting with Adam, also prophesied about these men, saying, “Look! Adonai came with his myriads of holy ones to execute judgment against everyone, that is, to convict all the godless for their godless deeds which they have done in such a godless way, and for all the harsh words these godless sinners have spoken against him.” © Richoka Do you agree or disagree with today’s interpretation? Why?

Raising Children with Grace, Not Performance Photo by Tara Glaser on Unsplash We all have that image in our head: The perfect Sunday school kid. Bible memory cards in one pocket, kindness in the other pocket. Says “yes, ma’am” before you even get the whole sentence out. Never talks back, rolls their eyes, or eats the communion bread too early. Spoiler alert: That kid? Doesn’t exist. (And if they do, they probably turn 17 and dye their hair blue just for the sake of feeling alive.) Where did the pressure come from? Somewhere in this parenting journey, especially in faith communities, we confuse discipleship with performance. We thought raising “godly kids” was: Perfect behavior. Pinterest-level quiet times. No tantrums in Target. But God’s Word describes a different narrative. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 Not perfection. Grace. Messy, miraculous, redemptive grace. The Problem with the “Perfect Kid” Myth: 1. It teaches kids to hide. If “good = accepted,” they’ll start editing themselves.They’ll say what they think we want to hear. But their faith becomes a performance, not a relationship. 2. It shames the struggle. If a child feels anxious, angry, curious, or doubtful, and all they’ve been taught is to smile and say, “God is good!” they’ll start believing something’s wrong with them. 3. It robs them of the Gospel. The entire point of the Gospel is that we needed a Savior. If we train our kids to think they are the savior (of their behavior, emotions, image) … We’ve missed the heart of Jesus. So, What Do We Do Instead? Let’s raise real kids with real faith. 1. Normalize Mistakes Don’t think of disobedience as spiritual failure. Think of it as an opportunity to grow. Try saying, “Everyone messes up. Let’s figure it out together.” “This doesn’t change how I view you, or how God views you.” Let grace do the hard lifting. 2. Encourage the internal and not only the external. Instead of praise that focuses on behaviors (“Good job sitting still!”) focus on praising: Curiosity: (“That’s a really deep question.”) Honesty: (“I’m proud you told the truth even if it was hard.”) Compassion: (“You noticed someone else’s feelings, that’s love in action.”) 3. Leave space for the entire story. It’s easy to panic when they say things like: “I’m mad at God.” “I don’t understand why we pray.” “I didn’t even mean to be kind — I just felt bad.” Instead, lean in. Listen. Faith is not a checklist; it’s a conversation. 4. Model Imperfection Allow your kids to see your process. Say things like: “I snapped today, and I shouldn’t have. That’s not who I want to be.” “Sometimes I don’t have the answer either. Let’s learn together.” “God is still working on me.” Humility is contagious. 5. Focus on formation, not performance. You are not raising a brand ambassador for your parenting. You are raising a beloved child of God. Teach them: That their worth is secure. That failing is part of growth. That grace is for every day. Because when they know they’re safe in love, they stop striving and start becoming. You are Not Raising a Trophy. You are Discipling a Soul. You do not need your son or daughter to win the admiration of the church crowd. You need them to feel known, safe, and guided. Stop feeling the weight of raising the ideal child. Instead, journey with them through mistake, doubt, and everything else, pointing back to Jesus. © The Blooming Educator