Spiritual Milk

This past week was full of fun for us. We celebrated Sydney's 4th birthday this week with Andrew's parents, sister, cousins and two of our nephews. We had a great time going to the zoo, swimming, out to eat, going on a scenic drive past George W. Bush's ranch and more. On her birthday Michael and Angela came from Belton to spend some time with us all. It was so nice to have family around for her birthday. She was one excited little girl:) Andrew keeps saying to me, 'I can't believe we have a 4 year old." I think it makes him feel a little old. It also makes me realize how fast time really does go by and what we are doing with this short time on this earth.

We were challenged yesterday on a passage from Hebrews 5:12-14. It reads, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil".

There is so much wisdom in this verse and it challenges me to not be satisfied with a luke-warm spiritual life. It's challenging me to move-on in my walk and strive towards becoming a teacher. One of the key words here for me is trained. How important is training? I think about training for some kind of sport. Pick your sport - anything. You got it? Okay, so lets say you've taught yourself how to play this sport and you've now been playing for years. You've never invested in coaching or real training because you thought everything you need to know, you can teach yourself. You're actually pretty good. Then as time goes by you want to take it to the next level. You want to join up with a team or get involved in a competition of some sort. At first the level of competition is what you expected, tough, but not too tough. Then as the games increase and time goes by you find that the people with training in the fundamentals and basics are the one's standing in the end. They know how to anticipate moves, discern situations and listen to their coaches. Then you discover you are ill equipped because of your lack of training. I don't want to be untrained. I want to be fruitful and multiply. My training comes from time with God, time in the word, with other believers, being motivated and coached in the truth and what life in Christ really means. Training equips us to become people who have our powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil". That's what I want.