Sunday Reflection: What does the Lord require?

My son and daughter started kindergarten with reading skills. They also knew shapes and colors. I prepared them well. Maybe a little too well, but that's another story. When coloring in their coloring books, I never made them color inside the lines because I believed they should "express themselves".

Imagine my horror when my son came home from school with a note saying that he needed to practice coloring inside the lines of the picture. Teary eyed he said the teacher told him he had to color within the lines and not doing so meant he was doing it wrong.

Imagine now that I march up to the school to tell the teacher, MY child WILL color outside the lines, if he so chooses. Well I didn't do that, but I wanted to. Instead, I told my kiddo that he could color outside the lines at home, but for school lessons he needed to do what the teacher instructed. All the while, I thought these were creative differences and she was imposing rules to squelch my son's spirit. Years later, I found out that coloring within the lines helps children with their eye/hand coordination.

There was a good reason for the teacher's rule.  

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly

and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.”

Micah 6:8 (NIV)

Blessings,

Teresa