We spent a wonderful ten days with 4 1/2 year old grandson, Raffi, and now he has flown home. As the plane took off, he started crying about leaving his grandma. I admit. I liked hearing that! I know I’m missing him. It’s definitely very quiet here. I’m already looking forward to his next visit.
In the meantime, it’s amazing to think of his maturing journey. For quite some time, I’ve noticed his fascination with “good guys” and “bad guys.” He usually knows which of the cartoon characters or movie characters are good guys or bad guys. And if he doesn’t know, he asks. He has them categorized and I wonder if it gives him security to know who is in each category.
Plus, in his world, there is no gray area with the characters. There’s no “might-do-good-one-day-and-do-bad-another-day guy.” The bad guy only does bad things and the good guy only does good things. Some day, he’ll realize it’s not quite that, well, black and white.
Raffi is figuring out the world. And maybe in a similar way, you and I have the same challenge. “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. (Hebrews 5:13-14 NASB).
I’m encouraged to read, “because of practice.” And the word “trained.” That sounds like a process to me. We will learn to differentiate between good and evil through practice and training. We won’t always get it right. We won’t always get it wrong. We’ll learn and grow and through eating some solid food, and not always drinking milk, we’ll become better at discerning good and evil.
As a result, we’ll more often be one of the “good guys.”