You Gotta Say What you Mean!

Maria had to learn the 10 commandments for AWANA. Her teacher taught her the easy 5 (don’t lie, don’t steal, etc.) and left the harder ones to explain for me! (To be fair, maybe the teacher took don't commit adultery; I honestly can’t remember.)

My list to teach included “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain.” Our children’s Bible interpreted it as “Don’t misuse God’s name” which I hoped would be easier for her to understand. After trying to explain it for a while, I could see it was not making an impression, so I ended up having to give the kids examples. It was quite an educational day as I shared and explained to them several cursing phrases (only the ones including God and Jesus....I left other colorful phrases for another day!). Of course, each was followed with the threat that they should NEVER say these things! They seriously agreed, even though the specific terms of the threat was never explained. Whew!

I don’t think they’ve heard anyone else use them yet, but it will be interesting to hear their responses when that happens. They used to whisper to me about kids in the store throwing temper tantrums with wide-eyes, not believing the child was getting away with it. Imagine when they hear adults saying these BAD things. I’m sure that will make another story for a future blog!