While in Virginia last week, Jill and I had the opportunity to spend time with the Grandkids, Killian (my warrior) and Selah Belle (my…well, Selah Belle). We played games, went shopping, had breakfast every morning and swimming a couple of times.

Now, I am not native to Virginia let alone the communities that the grandkids live in. So driving can sometimes be challenging. Especially if I know the general direction and location of something but have only been there a couple of times and a year since I was there last! So, we are going swimming one afternoon. I have Jill and the grandkids with me and Lauren (daughter) is just going to meet us at the pool in Amherst. No problem…or so I thought. Let me put it to you this way, have you ever taken directions from an eight and ten year old?

Jill and I drive around looking for the pool vaguely remembering how to get there. Let’s see, it was outside of town…north or west of town? Was it by the library we turn or that county road west of the library, pretty sure we turned right and it was on the left, or was it the right? And while we are driving and discussing this the kids are in the back seat giving us their own set of directions.

It was determined that the location of the pool was the road beside the library, a couple of miles down, then on the right with a sign pointing the way. After this was determined, Miss Selah Belle pipes up from the back seat and announces, “I told you it was the library we turned at. If you would just listen we could be there by now.” Out of the mouth of a babe and it is true, a child shall lead them!

What she said was not the funny part, it was the attitude she said it with. So I decided I would have some fun with them and this situation now. The kids immediately recognized the location and the land marks going to the pool. I decide to let them guide me to the final destination.

About 100 feet from the turn, we see a sign for the swimming pool. The kids scream, “THERE IT IS! TURN RIGHT HERE.” “Right here?” I ask. “YES!” they scream. So I proceed to turn right, right into the front yard of a house before the road to the pool. The kids scream, “NO Pappy, not here!” “But you said right here.” To which they inform me it is at the end of the Y in the road not the front yard!

I have some fun with them and their giving directions. As I was being quite exact with their commands, they were being somewhat general in their giving them. On the way home we had the discussion of turning left and they said right so I would turn right and they would scream again, “NO Pappy, left!” But I told them they said right. “No, we said right to the left turn!”

I managed to totally confuse them with my response to their response. This led me to telling them they were the worst circumnavigators in the world.This left them quite confused. “You mean navigators?” Killian responded. No, circumnavigators, causing them all kinds of confusion and delightful conversation to the one who caused all the confusion. (This led to other words that I messed up throughout the rest of the evening and made the grands laugh, question and possibly a little mad!)

One of the definitions of the word circumnavigate is to go around, avoid or bypass. This was my intent with the grandkids directions… get to the destination but not exactly the way they wanted.

All of this made me think about this word, circumnavigate. It can cause some confusion. I remember that in the Garden of Eden, Satan used this on Eve…“Did God really say…” or with Jesus in the wilderness, Satan tried to twist scripture to tempt Jesus (Matt. 4:5-6). I did this with the kids, twisting the words to say something that they did not intend.

We see this in our world today. Salvation by many/any way, doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe diligently, we all get saved in the end and God will send no one to hell are just to name a few. We see people take just a little bit of scripture and mix it with popular opinion and make it sound right. Just like I did with the kids’ directions.

This is why it is so important to know scripture, all of it, not just part of it. Otherwise we end up somewhere we do not want to be because the directions sure sounded good or authoritative. 1 John 4:13 tells us to test every spirit. Look, dig, study to see if what is being said is scriptural or just sounds good.

Think I will go to the GPS for directions next time…but where would be the fun in that!!!

Bro. Tim