It’s that time of year when all the stores start putting out the lists for school supplies. Parents everywhere will be scrambling to find the right items their young ones will need to do their best in the upcoming year. The right supplies might not make them do any better but we want to give them every chance to succeed. But what their spiritual education? The best item any parent can supply their child in order to help them grow in the knowledge of God is a Bible. It amazes me how many students come to Bible class without a Bible. Young people need to have and bring their own Bible to church every time the doors are open. Parents need to make sure their children are well equipped when they seek to gain a deeper understanding of God’s word. A Bible doesn’t have to be expensive to be a good study Bible. A good word for word translation that a child can read and comprehend is vital. Children need to understand that God’s word is something they can read and understand for themselves. As Paul wrote to Timothy, “that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” In this time, don’t forget about the most important supply in child’s spiritual education.
Let’s say you travel back in time six hundred years or so. Luckily, you happen across a fellow that speaks English. Upon hearing your tale, he describes you as nice, smart, and handsome. Wouldn’t you feel good? You shouldn’t. As Sol Steinmetz in his book, Semantics Antics , explains; Nice originally meant someone who was foolish, ignorant, senseless, or absurd (middle English 1300). Smart for the first 300 years of its use meant causing pain, sharp, cutting, or severe, a sense that survives in the idiom "smart as a whip.” Handsome wasn’t complimentary. When coined around 1425, it just meant easily handled; it didn’t have its current positive connotation until 1590. You might think he said you were a kind, intelligent, good looking bloke, when in reality he said you were a foolish pain easily dealt with. Words have an annoying habit of changing meaning over time in the same language and it becomes even more compli...
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