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When a baby is born, they have no responsibility. But the parents begin teaching skills like speech. (I have been told; if you're the dad teach the child to say "Mom" first, because that's the name you want to hear with a popular phrase of 2-5 year-olds, which is "Wipe my butt!"). They work on other skills like walking. At first, the parents will hold the baby up and just let him go through the motions of walking, but then the hands become fingers, and those become fingertips until, before you know it, the child is everywhere and into everything. The skills continue to be taught.
Once the kiddo has developed language skills and motor skills, we maybe start giving them simple tasks like bringing a cup of water to the doggie bowl. Or putting another scoop of food in. All these developments and tasks begin to teach a bit of responsibility. The more we learn the bigger the tasks and chores become.
Most chores are accompanied with training. The training makes us more responsible. The ever-increasing responsibility prepares us for the time when we will become independent and attempt to function on our own in "the real world." We, as parents, teach a child how to let go, knowing that one day our teaching will allow him/her to take that last step out of our care and into their own. I have not yet been there, but the thought of it makes me happy and sad - proud and depressed.
When a child of God is born, those that are older are to become fathers and mothers and help raise that person up. Sunday School stories turn to applications. Little tasks, like take this roll and put it outside the door, become bigger tasks. And one day, the spiritual child grows, and using the skills he or she has been mentored to have, becomes a healthy "adult" in the church, and they begin raising kids of their own in the spiritual realm.
What are some of the spiritual tasks or chores you learned growing up in Sunday school, that you intend to pass on to your children to help them grow in their faith?
In peace,
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