We have this old wooden bear standing near our bird feeder. It stands on its hind legs. Knowing that our grandchildren would be here during the holidays, my wife put an old hooded coat on the bear. Sure enough the birds quickly became used to the coat and continued to feed from the bear’s wooden paws. Now comes the neat part. One by one our grandchildren put on the old hooded coat and stood in front of the wooden bear. The birds seemed a bit cautious, something was different; never-the-less juncos, titmice and chickadees came and fed from the children’s hands. It was an exciting moment.
Birds are not the only creatures that can be conditioned. Humans are especially prone to conditioning. It doesn’t take us long to change our behaviors, our sense of fashion, style and speech. If we are told, enough times, that something is beautiful, we actually begin to think it is beautiful. Many of us pride ourselves on being independent thinkers, but the truth is we are not as independent as we suppose. Paul certainly understood this and thus warned us in Romans 12 not to be conformed to the world. Ever so slowly our sense of right and wrong, our sense of decency, our moral code is modified. Psalm 1:1 encourages us not to walk by, stand by and ultimately sit down in sinful places and ways.
The way to guard against such change is to continually focus on our benchmark – Scripture. If we daily feed our minds on the purity of God’s Word we can perceive the lower standards about us. However, should we fail to keep our eye on the benchmark, we will change. It is our nature to do so.
Written by Roger Bothwell on December 29, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org