What Color is Your Millstone?

I admit it.

We protect our children--a lot. Not toward ignorance, mind you, but rather--we prayerfully seek to protect them from their own immaturity of speech, deed and thought. And as their primary caregiver, I'm acutely aware of dangers where I watch others just scoff.

And yes, the momentum of the crowd has sometimes in the past, caused me to prayerfully consider whether we're too protective. Too careful. Too concerned.

I even have friends who have openly laughed at me for my protectiveness. And you know what? I don't care. Because they will not be there with me when I stand before Jesus Christ and answer for my motives, my choices, my priorities, and my actions in this life.

The Holy Spirit reminds me that Jesus, my Saviour, cautions me that I should be careful. I must be careful about causing one of His little ones to stumble.

Search me oh Lord, and see if there be any wicked way in me...

He's serious about it, too. He says that it would be better for me to strap a millstone around my neck and toss myself into the ocean depths.

And yet sometimes, I look around me and wonder if others who claim Christ as Saviour give this warning any thought at all? Or, are we, as a society, just presuming on God's grace and hoping for the best in a culture that has become too strong. Too accepted. Too enticing. Too fun.

I think there are many colors, styles and ways to wear a millstone.

How about a bright, bold-colored millstone? Hard to miss, and very popular. Just take hormonal young people and send them out on dates. Alone. In cars. And then expect them to stay chaste.

Or, tragically, don't expect them to stay chaste.

Or there is the popular and very pretty color-of-money millstone. To wear this one, we need only to unwittingly train up our children in the fine American way of gluttony and covetousness by buying them the biggest, best, brand new, brand-named everything! Set the bar high, high, high!

Listen to them whine, whine, whine!

Or, the most popular model of millstone--the earth-toned millstone. It blends better with the background. Understated. Sophisticated. These millstones range in price from free to fairly expensive depending upon how dull is the customer's conscience...which is to say that we're too often so desensitized that we don't even know that we've roamed from the straight and narrow, much less how far.

These millstones are made up of a myriad of very casual compromises that our society makes and passes down to the next generation--daily, or weekly as the television line-up dictates. A little bit of juicy adultery in the plot line. A smidgen of acceptable fornication in the narrative. Some funny, ha-ha teen rebellion in the story. A sparkly, splashy presentation to frame the unabashed lust of the activity. The sense of community that covers the fact that the people are melting down their gold burning up the phonelines to sculpt a calf for themselves to worship pick the next celebrity tragedy for their children to mimic and adore.

There are also custom millstones. They are designed-to-order, easy to strap on, and are the next best thing to the family crest! Choose from an assortment of family curse millstones: there is the alcohol millstone, the illegal drug millstone, the anger millstone, and the ever popular lying, cheating, stealing millstone. Go ahead! Mix and match. These millstones do their work twice as well when you combine them.

*pulling tongue from cheek now*

So...what millstone will you choose...to cut loose?