Asides

Kids and same-sex marriage

 

Several days after the law passed allowing same-sex couples to marry in Minnesota, my 10-year-old daughter noticed a blue and orange Vote No sticker in a passing car window.

“That person voted against the marriage amendment, right, Mom?” she asked. The kids had asked about the Vote No signs during the previous election, so my husband and I had talked about what we believed the Bible said  – that marriage is between one man and one woman, no exceptions.

“That’s right.” Ok, I supposed I had better tell them about the new law. This was obviously on their minds and I wanted them to get what I believe to be the whole truth. I told them about the law. And I reminded them that even if a law says something is OK, it doesn’t mean that we can do it if it is against what God says.

My 11-year-old son then piped up with, “Well I don’t see why two boys can’t get married. I mean, it makes good sense to me, if they love each other and all.”

Oh, boy! God, help me not freak out – give me words that are going to mean something to him! So I talked about how I love my female friends, but I am not married to them. I mentioned that marriage isn’t just about love. Then I felt like God gave me something.

“God made men and women slightly different in the way they think and act. So when a man marries a man, one of them has to act more like a woman. That means that one of the men then doesn’t get to be all that God made him to be. And the same is true for women. But if a man and a woman get married to each other then they both get to be exactly who God made them to be. You don’t want to be less than who God created you to be, or cause anyone else to miss out on being who God created them to be. That would not be any fun.”

We chatted a bit more on the subject, until I heard, “OK mom, let’s talk about something else. Who is your favorite Star Wars Lego minifigure.”

Proverbs 22:6  “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

 

I always thought…

I always thought Abraham’s wife, Sarah, to not exactly fit with Abraham. She laughs when the angels tell him about her impending motherhood. She has Ishmael and his mother sent out into the desert to die when it was she the Bible said gave Hagar to Abraham, in the first place. She just doesn’t seem like the faithful type.

But while reading through the first part of Abraham’s story again, I started to get a hint of understanding. To save his own skin, Abraham lets rulers take her to be their wife not once, but twice! That must have made it very difficult for her to trust Abraham and, in turn, the God that he followed.

This is an excellent reminder for all of us that we must look to God for who He is, and not get hung up on the sinfulness of the Christians around us (me being one of those sinful Christians!). It is also an excellent reminder for us, as Christians, that people are going to look to us to get an understanding of who God is, so our behaviors will impact people’s ability to trust God both positively and negatively.