No Poo Poo

I know I've written about this before, but I have it on my brain to write about it again -- probably because the first example I have is pretty cute.

We have guests staying with us for a while. One of them is a toddler who is not potty trained yet. I was walking down the stairs in our home and saw him in the family room. I said "hi" to him and he got this look on his face, shook his head, and said "no poo poo!" His dad's response was pretty funny -- "kid, when you confess to something we didn't even ask you about, there's probably crap in your pants."

I asked his dad later a question I already knew the answer to -- "So did you teach your kid to lie?" I wasn't being a jerk, as he knew already I was making a point based on the context of our conversation. Of course he didn't teach his kid to lie, he tries to teach his kid NOT to lie.

No one taught me to steal. Yet when I was a kid, I was a thief. I'd raid my mom's dresser where she kept money hidden to spend it on video games at the mall. I don't recall anyone teaching me that I should get obsessed with something so much that I would resort to theft to keep feeding my desires.

No one taught me to lust after women either when I was a bit older. When I first saw pictures of naked women, no one had to explain the different possible reactions to me, and that doing the eye-popping, jaw-dropping, tongue-rolling-on-the-floor thing you see in the cartoons thing was the response I should go for.

Come to think of it, no one taught my kids to think of themselves and fight when they don't get their way. I certainly don't recall having a sit-down with one of my daughters and telling her, "okay, be selfish in the game, and when your sister doesn't like what you're doing, whine at her, try to manipulate her, and then refuse to play with her unless she gives in."

Why do this things not have to be learned? Because they are IN us. There is no such thing as a "good" person, just like the Bible teaches. "As it is written: 'None is righteous, not one.'" (Romans 3:10). Don't believe Paul? How about Jesus? "No one is good except God alone." (Luke 18:19b).

If you have one, throw away any notion that we come into the world pure and clean, and the world wrecks us. Rather, know that we come into the world impure and defiled, and Christ fixes us. When we see the hopeless state we're in without him and turn to him, we become right with God. We're still a mess, but we're in good standing -- ready for a lifelong makeover from the inside out.