Chopsticks

Last night we had a couple of Little Mister's friends join us for dinner, sort of last minute.  I tried to think of a way to stretch the chicken I had out a little further and decided to make my own recipe for chicken lo mein (Chinese chicken and noodles, which, for me, is less of a recipe and more of a throwing together of certain ingredients in uncertain amounts).  Little Mister L.O.V.E.S. when I make chicken lo mein.

Another thing LM loves is to use chopsticks.  And not just for Asian food.  Anything with pasta or rice is fair game as far as he is concerned.  As I was dishing up the food last night, LM pulled out a pair of chopsticks for himself, and, as soon as his friends saw them, they asked if they could use some, too.  LM happily obliged.  (Is it normal to have eight or so pairs of non-disposable chopsticks in one's household?  I have a set of them in a pretty box that my mom brought back from China, and they are well-used!)

To watch the three kids use their chopsticks and hear their giggles and comments was a delight.  One of the friends was using both hands, a chopstick in each, and the other was "chopsticking" one noodle at a time.  LM has had some experience, but was still doing some funny things.

That scene keeps coming back to me for some reason.  Different people trying to accomplish the same thing in different ways.  Each one with unique ideas on how to make it work.  Had a Chinese native joined us at our table in the middle of the meal, he/she might have been appalled!  Without knowing the background of what was going on . . . well, he/she might have come to some wrong conclusions.

You know, sometimes people are just wrong, and that's all there is to it.  If what they are doing is against the Bible, then there's nothing to call it but sin.  Sometimes, though, people are just different from us.  They look at life differently, they have different methods of accomplishing things and different gifts to use for God's glory.  This doesn't make them wrong.

We need to be careful to weigh everything against Scripture instead of looking too narrowly through the lenses of our own pride and comfort.

Sometimes even our own children will have something to teach us in their own unique way.  I'm not talking about parents caving in to wrong-doing or faulty thinking.  Again, a child can simply add a new dimension to our set ways of looking, hearing, doing, saying. 

If we're willing.

We need to be careful.