A Lesson From Riley

Today I was hanging out with my friend Leslie and her 10 month old baby girl Riley. Leslie and I have been friends since we were 10. We went to middle school, high school, and college together. Now we live in neighborhoods right down the street from each other. It's been fun to share almost all of our stages of life together, including this one. I usually go over at least once a week to play with Riley and it has been a blast watching her grow and change over the last 10 months.

Right now Leslie is working on getting Riley to eat something other than baby food. She wants Riley to be ready to eat cake at her 1st birthday in a couple months. Unfortunately, Riley is refusing everything Leslie tries. Today I got to witness it, and the faces Riley makes are hysterical! She puckers out her lips, scrunches her nose, and even acts like she is gagging!

I started thinking about how Riley's rejection of solid food is a great picture of Paul's call to spiritual growth in Hebrews 5:11-14:

^"11 There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. ¹² You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. ¹³ For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. ¹⁴ Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong." (NLT)

If Riley doesn't decide to begin eating solid food before her birthday, she's going to miss out out on some really yummy birthday cake. In the same way, if we aren't willing to go deeper in our relationship with Christ by feeding on his word, we are going to miss out on the benefits of growth and intimacy with Christ that we could experience!

So where are you? Are you still living on milk or are you eating solid food? Have you been a Christian for a long time, but haven't grown? Are you ready...?

-Leigh Anne