Friday, August 13, 2004
Who Made That Rule?
Wednesday evening I dropped by to see my grandson after church. He was sleeping but my son met me at the door with him in his arms, to let me hold him. I said "You are not supposed to pick up a sleeping baby" to which he replied "Who made that rule?" As I sat there holding this sweet bundle of joy I decided he was right, that is a dumb rule.
Then I wondered, do we accept some "rules" without ever questioning why they were made? We had a rule at my house growing up that you had to eat dinner at the table, and you had to "ask" to be excused before you could leave the table. Those rules never worked at my house. We ate on TV trays or wherever and sometimes in shifts, so there was no one to ask to be excused. I know that there are things we MUST do, things that are not rules but commands, but there are a lot of other things that made sense at one time but don't make sense anymore (I am thinking of Sunday night preaching service.)
Asking "why" has never been a real problem for me. In the fifth grade my teacher was so frustrated that I kept asking him "why" that he made me write as many "why's" as I could fit on a page front and back. This didn't really stop me. (Silly teachers, I loved to write). I have frustrated many co-workers when I was learning a new job because I wanted to know why we did things, it was never enough to know how. Yet there are things in life I don't question, I just accept as a rule. Like picking up that sweet baby.
I pray that God will help me to know when to say Why and to never try to force rules that He didn't make on myself or on others.
Have a great weekend.
Then I wondered, do we accept some "rules" without ever questioning why they were made? We had a rule at my house growing up that you had to eat dinner at the table, and you had to "ask" to be excused before you could leave the table. Those rules never worked at my house. We ate on TV trays or wherever and sometimes in shifts, so there was no one to ask to be excused. I know that there are things we MUST do, things that are not rules but commands, but there are a lot of other things that made sense at one time but don't make sense anymore (I am thinking of Sunday night preaching service.)
Asking "why" has never been a real problem for me. In the fifth grade my teacher was so frustrated that I kept asking him "why" that he made me write as many "why's" as I could fit on a page front and back. This didn't really stop me. (Silly teachers, I loved to write). I have frustrated many co-workers when I was learning a new job because I wanted to know why we did things, it was never enough to know how. Yet there are things in life I don't question, I just accept as a rule. Like picking up that sweet baby.
I pray that God will help me to know when to say Why and to never try to force rules that He didn't make on myself or on others.
Have a great weekend.
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No singing at the table, no elbows on the table ... no popping your gum if you are a "lady" or is it chewing it, period? No praying when eating out, unless you do the quick head nod. Hmmmmmm, some rules are made to be broken.
It's like the old story of the church that HAD to wave a cloth over the bread before communion - it had been done forever and was perpetuated with no one knowing why. Then an enterprising person researched the practice and found that they waved a cloth over the bread when they were meeting outside in the settler days to shoo the flies! Ya never know...
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My mother used to make this cornbread and always put one recipe in two little pans then layered it like a cake on the plate she served it on. One day I asked why she said she didn't know...her mother had always done that. So she aked her mother. My grandmother said that she had always done it becasue that's how her mother did it. Since her mother was gone she asked an aunt. My great, great Aunt boo-hooed she laughed so hard!She finally figured out that her sister had always done corn bread that way because their Mama had. It seems that those little pans were the only pans that would Fit in the oven along side the roaster! Her Husband, my great, great, great grandfather wanted his cornbread warm so she layered the cornbread cakes on the serving plate to keep the lower layer warm. He could pull a warm peice from the bottom!
Sorry for the long story but that has always made me laugh... Especially when I take my two little pans of cornbread out of my big oven anf layer them on a plate! Why break tradition? :)
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Sorry for the long story but that has always made me laugh... Especially when I take my two little pans of cornbread out of my big oven anf layer them on a plate! Why break tradition? :)
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