“Speak to your children as if they are the wisest, kindest, most beautiful and magical humans on earth…” (Quote by Booke Hampton)
I’ve been young and now I’m old. I wish I could continue writing this morning, and be like Forrest Gump and say, “And that’s all I got to say about that.” I even wish I could just borrow from David’s word in Psalm 37 and say, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging for bread.” However, that is not what I was inspired to write about today. So let’s get to it!
As a young adult, and even in my mid-life years, I was told when it came to interviewing for a job, or when trying to find the right clothes, now known as “the right outfit,” for a gathering, or when making a presentation in front of influential people or those I wanted to hear my voice and be influenced as opposed to silently voicing their opinion about my dress attire, I needed to dress to impress. Some say, “Dress for success.”
That was the “I’ve been young” part of this meditation. Now for the “…and now I’m old” part. Instead of dressing to impress, now I have to dress for the inspection. I say that because of my encounter with little children who look you over and don’t miss a thing? Here are some of the things I have been asked. “Why don’t you have any hair?” “Why are you walking so slow?” “Why didn’t you wear red tennis shoes?” “Why do you have on a sleeveless winter vest and a coat?” “Why are you brown?” Oh, believe me, I have answers for each one of those questions in response to the little children’s questions.
The best question ever was when a kindergartner noticed that I had a missing tooth. On various occasions she has asked me about that missing tooth. “What happened to your tooth?” “Did your tooth grow back yet?” One day after showing me that she had a loose tooth and describing how she was going to get some money for it, presumably from the tooth fairy would do his/her thing, she told me to open my mouth. She then asked another tooth question, “When is your tooth coming back?” She looked at me with a puzzled and disappointing face. So, I responded to her in a way that she will possibly reflect on when she gets older. I said, “Now don’t worry. Smile! For one day, I will put on a brand new, imperishable body. Everything will be perfect!” The kindergartner did as I asked. She smiled! But the fact that my response was over her head was revealed by asking, “What about the tooth?” That child may make me spend some big bucks so I can pass inspection.
But in the meantime, I will keep dressing to impress, not to please anyone, other than the Lord Almighty. I really want to pass His inspection and hear Him tell me, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
How about you? Are you dressing to please self, others, or the Lord, in terms of your spirituality? Think about it. In the meantime, be patient with the children who inspect you, and be thoughtful of them too. Let them see the Christ who lives in you. Be blessed!
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (I Corinthians 15:50-54 English Standard Version)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King