Three Idiots

Answers.com defines an idiot as a “foolish or stupid person”. What are the characteristics of an idiot? What does a fool do or not do? I’d like to talk with you today about a particular kind of idiot. If you’ll permit me, I‘ll narrow the focus down to a King James Bible Believing Independent Baptist idiot. Now, this idiot is very special. He or she has some very, very precious, beneficial, and useful things laying right in front of his or her nose and is totally unwilling to avail themselves of them.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This person might dress in very modest clothing, never drink alcoholic drinks, watch TV or movies, or go “down the ocean” or even own a pair of swimming trunks or a bathing suit. But, this person is still an idiot, brain dead, and only getting dumber and dumber every day.
The first idiot I want to talk about is the idiot who doesn’t pray with their spouse every day. You see, in spite of the fact that the Holy Spirit guided Paul to tell us to pray without ceasing this goof doesn’t think that it’s important to take some small moment out in his or her day to pray with their spouse. They don’t think it’s important to bring their mutual adoration and love for their Lord, their gratitude for the mercy He’s shown them, or their supplications for their family and themselves, together with one voice, to the throne room of their Creator.
The idea that husband and wife uniting as one in a non-physical way totally escapes them. They can’t see how close their joint prayers to God, bringing their concerns and thanksgiving before Him, can bring them. They can’t imagine how pleasing it must be to God to have them pray together.
No, they are content with silence, with that wall of separation that arises because a man and a woman don’t really know what each other feels deep in their heart of hearts, what their greatest joys or the worst fears are, and how frustrations and disappointments can build and create bitterness and resentment.
Yes, I know it can be done with a wrong spirit. For instance, I don’t recommend, men, as you kneel by your bed, holding your wife’s hand, that you offer up, “Lord, please help her to learn to cook like my Mama”. And ladies, I wouldn’t suggest that you ask God to help your husband lose his embarrassingly prominent spare tire. No, that’s not how you should pray together. But you should pray for each other. You should pray for each other’s encouragement, health, success, faithfulness to God, and for each person to get light from God’s word, and to have their prayers blessed. There are so many things each of you can pray for together and your hearts can be knit together as one in a way that mere talking things through every night, and talking things through is very important, can’t accomplish.
Yes, Paul says to pray without ceasing in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. And the only reason he gives for refraining from the enjoyment of marital relations is in order to spend some time together in prayer and fasting as per 1 Corinthians 7:5.
Does anyone doubt our Lord when he said in Matthew 18:19,20; “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” I’ll be glad to argue the doctrinal applications of Matthew 18 with you some other time. Please permit me this spiritual application for my purpose here.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, pray with your spouse. Pray every day together. Find some point of time where you can do that and some place where you can be left alone. It’s important and doing it will be a tremendous blessing for your marriage and your relationship within that marriage. I promise that if you pray together you will reduce the arguments, the tensions that many marriages, even Christian marriages have, and lessen the likelihood that one will stray from the bands of faithfulness and make a mess of both your lives and your childrens’.
The second idiot I want to talk about is the one, male or female, who doesn’t feel it’s necessary to read the Bible to his or her children. Joshua said, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” The Psalmist says in the very first Psalm says that the Blessed man meditates on God’s word day and night. Then, in Psalm 119, the Holy Spirit opens up with both barrels.
Verse 9 says “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. “
Verse 11 says “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
Now, two things are of note here. First, a child wants to hear his parents read to him when they are small. They’ll constantly nag you to read them a story or just read anything to them. Now, why do you think that Sally Steamshovel or Buzz the Builder or some other nonsense is of more value to your child than God’s word? I don’t even give a care for so called Christian stories if they are put in place of reading the very words of God to your child. Fruity Tales or whatever might be just fine but anything that becomes a substitute for prayer, talking to God, and Bible reading or listening, God talking to you, is sin in my mind.
The second thing of note here is that your child, particularly if he or she goes to public school and as a Libertarian politically I believe that your child’s education is YOUR responsibility not the government’s school that teaches the government’s religion where the government is god, is going to hear enough of Satan’s words every day. For you to not at least to try to combat the influence of Satan in your child’s head is unconscionable. He or she is going to hear things like “life is an accident”, “you are a brute aggregate of atoms”, “the earth is just one small speck in a remote section of an infinite universe”, or “homosexuals are just like you and me, only more so” or “abortion is good because every child should be wanted like you are”, etc. etc.
Perhaps while your child is playing with his or her little friends in the neighborhood or even, God forbid, in your own home they’ll hear the radio exclaim, “Testify, It's a rock revival,
Don't need a suit, Ya don't need a bible, Get up and dance, I'm gonna set you free, yeah, Testify, It's all sex, drugs, and rock n' roll, A soul sensation that you can't control, And you can see I practice what I preach, I'm your rock n' roll Jesus, Yes I am.” That was the number one hit by Kid Rock, “Rock n Roll Jesus”, by the way. Number ONE! Or maybe you have a more conservative family and you’ve got your news TV on, maybe FOX News and a very important and powerful person is sitting in the most important office in the world, a man you can respect and admire, and he says, “Muslims and Christians are all on their own path to the Almighty”.
Now, your child is going to hear this Satanic inspired trash day in and day out. How much of the time is he or she going to hear God’s own words in their ears?
Job 34:3 says, “For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.” What do you want your children to eat? Healthy, fresh cooked food or rotting garbage?
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
One theory about child rearing is this. Look at your child and imagine what kind of person you want them to be. Then, you be that person.
But, an even more sure way of successfully raising a child would be; “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” How can you raise a child in the Lord’s nurture and admonition without His words in your child’s ears every single day?
I believe that the idiot leaving their child with the daily influence of Satan’s world ringing in their head and with the Bible only mentioned for a minute or two or maybe only on Sunday and Wednesday night is accomplishing the modern version of passing them through the fire to Molech. You can’t simply surrender your child to Satan, refuse to do what God has told you to do, rejected the things He’s offered to help you, and then expect God to make up the shortfall.
Perhaps this idiot will turn out a strong, Christ centered young person in spite of the idiot’s spiritual neglect. The good thing is, then they can admit that God did it all because they didn’t.
Read the Bible to your children every single day. Make the time. Decide to do it now.
The third idiot, the third foolish person I want to bring to your attention, is this one. He or she gets up at the last second in the morning and their children do the same. They rush to the breakfast table and lap up their bowl of Oafy Goafy Sugar Bombs and then race off to school and work. When they come home, their video game playing children only hear them ranting about the stupidity of the boss or customer or maybe how much of a jerk that guy was who cut them off in traffic. Then, the family eats some microwave meal and watches unbelievably meaningless TV shows and then goes to bed.
What’s missing? At no time in the day did the idiot Mom or Dad or both sit or kneel down with their little ones and pray together, as a family. They didn’t help their little ones offer up their heartfelt concerns to our heavenly Father. They didn’t share the way God had blessed them that day and didn’t teach the children how to look for God’s hand in the little things they face each day. They heard Mom and Dad argue maybe, or talk trash about someone in their Church, or complain about how high their taxes are but they did not hear them praising God for His mercy that day or His blessing. They heard no “thank you for our family, my job, our home, our car, and thank you for keeping me safe going to and from work today” and they weren’t encouraged to offer up a “Lord, please help my classmate, Johnny, to get saved and touch my friend, Billy’s Dad’s heart, so that he’ll come back home. Billy is so sad”. They’ll miss the blessing of learning how to pray and seeing that Mother and Father are as dependent upon God as they are.
This idiot doesn’t think it’s important to pray with their children. They’re too busy to do that. Anyway, the kiddies are learning just fine at church so why bother?
This idiot is going to look at an empty house one day and realize that their children aren’t a part of their daily life. They’re going to miss the little smiling faces, the hugs, and the kisses, and they will never have known the joy of seeing a very, small child fervently praying for someone’s health, or sadness, or see them thanking God just for giving them life.
These are blessings that were available to all three types of idiots. They are sweet blessings, filled with promise, and ripe with joy and a closeness with the Lord Jesus Christ. They can produce only good fruit and stronger relationships, filled with more love. It is hard to see why any Christian would simply refuse to receive the blessing that is waiting to be bestowed on them by these three simple, yet beautiful behaviors; praying with their spouse, reading the Bible to their children, and praying with them.
The definition of an idiot is a foolish or stupid person. This person will cry out to God and ask, why did you let this happen, when a marriage crumbles in ruins and their hearts are broken into a thousand jagged pieces, or when they receive a call from a police officer about their child, or they see spouse or child’s life falling apart and descending into drugs and alcohol, fornication and the consequent diseases or the heartbreak of illegitimacy. They will ask why, why is this happening to my family? I go to church faithfully. I dress modestly. I go on visitation. I pass out tracts. Why? Why?
Don’t ask why. Do the needful things. Start today. Don’t be an idiot.