Troublemint Twins

Whoever decided that kids didn’t need Baptism because they aren’t accountable for sin never taught First Graders.

Two of mine understand the Law well enough that they can demonstrate their expertise in Creative Tattletelling 101 under the guise of practicing the Eight Commandment.

“You need to tell Deaconess what you did to me because I can’t tell on you!” This is spoken loudly enough to catch my attention, of course. The intention of the speaker, obvious by the fact that he is also shoving his compadre in my direction, is to force a confession of some wrongdoing and also to extract some form of just retribution from me for the crime inflicted upon his wounded person by the other fella.  

“Nobody should ever tell someone else’s sins, only his own. So I’m not telling on you.” (Ditto above.)

“HEY! DIDN’T DEACONESS SAY NOT TO DO THAT? I’M GLAD I’M NOT THE ONE DOING IT!” This is the one that’s finely tuned. There’s no bodily injury involved. Usually it’s splashing water in the bathroom, running in the hallway, throwing erasers, tipping a desk, saying inappropriate words, or flicking juice at snack time. There’s no direct accusation, just a means to grab my attention. It’s enough for me ask, “OK, boys, what’s going on? Who did what?” Only by now I’ve learned better. With these two, if there’s no blood showing and no one is screaming in pain, I gently inform the speaker that he needs to use his “indoor voice,” and ask him if he remembers what tattletelling is. He does, and repeats the Eighth Commandment with meaning. That settled, peace resumes in the classroom.  

If children are not accountable for their sins, then they are righteous for that reason alone.

Jesus came for sinners, not the righteous, Matt 9:13.

Yet, the wages of sin is death (Ro 6:23), and children do die. So, children are under the curse of sin, death and the devil. Thus, children need the forgiveness of sins, too.  

Therefore, on what is the certainty of their own forgiveness to be grasped? Baptism saves us now, through the resurrection of Christ (1Pe 3:21; Ro 6:3-4).

Denying the Kingdom of God to little ones such as these is a damnable practice wherever it is carried out.

When these youngsters sin, we speak of it openly to them. They name their sin. We name their Savior. One of “Troublemint Twins” said today, “Jesus takes my sins and He scoops them up with Him on the cross. One day my body will rise up from the dead. That’s resurrection. That’s Baptism.”