Ponies, Rainbows, and Butterflies

“In my world everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows, and poop butterflies.” That’s a line from a kids movie that my son loves to quote. It’s cute, and he always makes me chuckle when he says It in the voice of the character. I used it this morning to illustrate a point to my kids about truth and worldviews. It’s challenging to train your children to think Biblically when they live in a culture inundated with secular views. We all want to guard our kids from the negative influences out there, and I’m thankful I homeschool so I can do just that. But I don’t just want to guard them, I want to train them. They won’t be homeschooled forever (Whew! Thank God for that!), so before we release them into the lion’s den of this world, I try to have as many of these “teaching” sessions as possible. And this one was successful. I started with a baseball illustration that I heard on the radio and I figured three boys would totally get it. It’s an analogy using three umpires. The first umpire says that he calls the pitches as they are, balls and strikes. The second umpire says that he calls them as he sees them. And the third umpire says, “They ain’t nothin’ till I call ‘em!”

“So what’s that supposed to mean,” they asked. Well the first umpire represents basing your views on truth when the second umpire represents basing your views on how things appear to you. It’s like “proofs” in geometry (and fortunately two of the three boys understood this one). You can’t prove that two shapes are congruent just because they look congruent. If you tried to do that, you’d get an “F” in geometry. You have to prove your statement based on a list of theorems. Theorems are truths and they don’t change. Likewise, when you take a stand on something in life, you have to back up your position with truths. And where do we find those truths? My sons knew the answer…they’re in the Word of God. But just as you cannot successfully get through “proofs” in geometry without first learning the theorems, you also cannot successfully defend your position unless you first read and learn God’s Word. Otherwise, you’ll be just like the second umpire…taking your stand based on how things appear. Since that’s the way it looks to you, that’s what you believe. It might work with calling pitches, but it doesn’t always work well elsewhere.

Well, as I said, I’m thankful and blessed to have the opportunity to homeschool my kids, but I pray that as they grow in maturity, they’ll continue to grow in the Lord and His Word, searching the scriptures. If they don’t they’ll find themselves feeling frustrated knowing that the information was once given to them (by Mom and Dad), but they just can’t seem to recall it. That’s the situation my daughter found herself in recently. She knew that it was possible to defend her faith and answer the question of her college friend, but she couldn’t recall the information or where in the scriptures to find it. I’m glad she came to me instead of giving up. She at least followed the advice of “I don’t know right now, but I know how to find out.” Maybe her frustration will lead her to get back into the Word, and I’ll praise God when it happens, but I suppose right now the greatest testimony in this is that her foundation was strong because it was based on truth. Even though she was frustrated in her mind, her faith was not shaken regardless of how the “questioning” appeared to shake it.

But what does all this have to do with the silly quote I began with? That’s where the third umpire comes in. According to him, the pitches are nothing until he calls them. But he bases his stance on nothing. He creates his own truth. Called post-modernism, it’s not new, but it is a trend that’s been growing for some time now. Well I suppose that would be the next step, wouldn’t it? When so much of the world has rejected God’s Word as truth, why not take the next step and create your own? If it feels good, we’ll call it good and that will be our truth. If it feels bad, we’ll call it bad and that will be our truth. But of course, there can’t be any absolutes because everyone feels different. It’s basically just creating your own values, your own truths, and it leads to a society completely contrary to God’s Word with no one even caring that it does. Homosexual marriage, abortion, euthanasia? Well if you believe these issues to be perfectly fine and OK because you feel they’re perfectly fine and OK, what’s to stop you from going even further? How about legalizing pedophilia or marrying your pet? How about infanticide…killing a fully developed newborn baby? Or maybe we could come up with a maximum age for life, at which point the elderly would just go into the doctor’s office to get their shot to end their life. Sounds preposterous? Of course it does…just like everybody becoming ponies, eating rainbows and pooping butterflies.

Well, at least my boys understood how ridiculous it is to create your own truth. And although post-modernism is seeping into our churches, I think the majority struggle more with falling into the category of the second umpire simply because they’re not in the Word. That’s very sad considering we have more resources than we’ve ever had before, and yet we have the highest level of Biblical illiteracy. We have information at our fingertips, and yet most self-proclaimed Christians don’t know God’s Word? I understand that when a society doesn’t have the truth available to them, they don’t have much of a choice. But we have no excuse!

 We have a limited vantage point, but God has every vantage point. Why would we not take advantage of that? This applies to much more than just your theological beliefs. Even for myself, there are issues that can cause a lot of worry and concern based on what I can see and what I cannot see- finances…health…even the spiritual condition of my family and friends. Take for example my daughter. I could worry about how it seems that she is drifting further away from God. After all, that is what I see. But I’m not going to burden myself with worry when I know the promises laid out in God’s Word. Such as “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” When I boldly speak His truth from His Word, then I can clearly hear His voice speaking to my heart, “Don’t give up. Pray for her. Trust in Me. I’m drawing her to Me.” And I believe it…because His Word is truth.

Written by Amie Spruiell