Reminders: Out of the Mouth of Babes

After some discussion about the meaning of salvation and the reason Jesus died to save sinful people, a second-grade Sunday-school teacher asked her class, “What do we have to do to be forgiven for our sins?”  One little boy’s hand shot up.  When the teacher called on him, he said, “That’s easy, we have to sin.”  The teacher was caught off guard and was rendered speechless.  She tried very hard not to laugh!  She finally regained her composure and was able to admit that the boy was indeed correct.  She took the opportunity to explain that we all sin in our everyday lives, even when we try our best to be good people. 

She said, “God saw that people were not able to keep from sinning and sent His Son Jesus to save us.  When we do something wrong, we can ask God to forgive us.” she added.  “He is able to forgive us because Jesus paid the price for all of us.”  One little girl thought about that for a while and asked, “Does that mean we can do anything we want to because we will be forgiven anyway?”  The teacher asked the class what they thought. 

Finally, another child said, “My Mommy says that we have to try to do our best to be good all of the time, even when we think we might want to do something bad, because it helps us be the kind of people that other people want to be friends with.” 

The teacher silently thanked God for wise parents who teach their children good values.  Sometimes children have the right answers while some of us adults might need to think back about what we learned in Sunday school.  

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:7