The Right Tools Are Most Effective When We Know How To Use Them

The daughter of a friend was at my house recently when we decided we needed to make cupcakes. For speed and ease on this day we went with a boxed mix and canned frosting – something I rarely do. However, there’s a time and a place for everything. When there are extra kids at your house looking for snacks, it’s both.

I asked her if she wanted to decorate the cupcakes. Well, of course she did. She didn’t want to just spread a little frosting on with a knife. She wanted to pipe something fancy. I understood. I was that little girl once. I got out my cake decorating supplies and told her to pick out whatever she wanted to use.

She spent a few minutes looking at all the tips and then looked at me and said, “I don’t know what any of them do.”

Right. Tools don’t always help if we don’t know how to use them. We spent another few minutes talking about them and what they do. We talked about how even the same tips can do assorted designs when we change the movement of our hand. We had a lesson on how to fill and hold the bag, how the warmth from your hand changes the temperatures of the icing and why that matters, how to get air bubbles out, and how it’s good to practice first.

There was a lot of information shared. I watched her begin to work and helped guide her as she went. As I watched her, I began to think increasingly about how great it is to have fun equipment and proper tools. But equipment only takes you so far.

Teaching her simple decorating techniques made me think about what I’m instructing my own children. Am I giving them a box full of tools but no instruction on what to do with them? Proverbs (22:6) and Ephesians (6:4) both tell us to train up a child in the way he should go.

It takes time and effort to teach them how to use the tools they have. In addition to teaching them how to be good and kind humans, I believe that also includes showing them how to consistently attend church, how to serve others, read their Bibles and learn to pray. Sometimes it is helping them learn the gifts and skills they have and how to use them, so they become good stewards of their talents. As parents, we must help them understand.

That’s what Jesus did in His earthly ministry. He told parables to make difficult concepts easier to understand. He showed us how to live not just follow a rigid set of rules. Jesus taught us how to pray. He didn’t just give us a tool. He showed us how to use it. He could have easily spent all His earthly time just performing miracles and simply being God, but He didn’t. He spent much of His time teaching and simplifying, being human. He showed us how to pray, how to grieve, and how to love. He showed us how to tap into the source of His power – the Father.

We need to show our children in much the same way. I think about how much time I spend reading scripture but still find parts difficult to comprehend. I bet I’m not alone in that. The Bible is such a wonderful tool but even Satan uses it. It’s vitally important that we learn to use it correctly. And we must teach our children. It does little good to memorize words that we don’t understand or don’t apply. We’re not using it correctly when we take it out of context or just try to apply a verse to a wound in the way we would with a bandage.

Being a Christian comes with the privilege of getting to have access to our Creator. To truly appreciate that and to be all we were created to be, we must learn to use the tools He provided us. I’m never going to reach my potential if I’m unwilling to learn how to use everything He gave me. My children won’t either unless I show them how.

Today let’s commit to learning how to pray, to properly digging into our Bibles, and to finding and using the talents God planted in us. Parents and guardians of children still at home, let’s commit to making sure we are teaching and training them up as well. It’s a tremendous responsibility.