I work at the public library here in town, and I help with craft time with the kids, mostly ages 5-12. Its my job to just walk around and help kids with their craft. Well today during our O Canada Day wreath craft, I saw a parallel between these kids main objective: to finish the little craft to the best of their ability, and our main objective as christians: to finish our little call(job, vision, raok, life).

   A few of these kids are masters of the library craft time. They skillfully color and cut, ribbonate and glitterate.  They hardly try, it just comes naturally.Their end product is nothing short of amazing and breath taking.

    And some of the kids try their best. They crookedly cut, tongue stuck on the side of their mouth while their little eyes and hands are focused on the task. They put glue down for the glitter, just a few places out of the lines, and they string macaroni, working as hard as they can to get the red white and blue pattern exact, but messing up and accidently putting red side by side twice. They take their time, sometimes being the last ones at the table while everyone else is down on the floor watching the movie selection.You cant help but like their finished creation despite it being little rough.

  And then there are the kids who dont give a crap about the final product. They get some paper, slap some marker on it, do a little dance, run around the tree (our kids room is an "orchard", with fake trees surrounding it) and call it a craft. Its sloppy and directionless, with no thought or harldy any effort. Its garbage. 

  I think the first type of kid represents alot of people who claim to be christians. They grew up in the church, with christian parents, they know how to do it. They might not even have a deep relationship with God, but their actions just come out as perfect, the person who seems to do everything right. People trust them, come to them with questions about God, and look up to them. But in reality they are just working the system most of the time. 
  The second kid equals the real christian. They work hard at getting to know God, reading their bible, understanding what they believe. They want to please God and do the right thing, but sometimes they slip up. They are humble and know they cant always do everything right. But they try their hardest and put alot of effrt into their christian walk.
   And lastly their are the christians that go no farther than saying the salvation prayer. They think that that is enough to prosper and succeed at the christian life. Basically getting by by the skin of their teeth. They will do what costs them the least, not sacrificing or trying real hard.  And thats good enough for them.
                                                                                                                                                                                                     I know that these examples dont represent all christians, but I think it represents a good hunk of them. As for myself I waver between the first and second type. I know how to be a christian in my head, I was raised one, but sometimes I use that for my benefit, not really meaning what Im doing, just going through the actions, and sometimes I really mean it, I really strive to know God more, and try hard to understand what Im doing in this life.
              I dont know about you, or where you fit into this whole thing, but maybe you want to take a few minutes to ponder what type of christian you are. Do you work the system using yor knowledge of whats going on, do you try your hardest at spiritual growth, or do you not really care at all? God loves you no matter where you fit in, but He sees our potential and wants us to see it as well.  Hope everyone has a great day today!!

-alissa-