Have You Washed Your Hands?

Lunch preparation completed, I called my three small grandsons inside. Since they were coming from the sandbox, I reminded them to wash their hands. Moments later, they burst through the door, charging toward the bathroom.

Not wanting the washup to be a drip-and-dry event, I stopped them before they reached the table. Bending down, I individually clasped their little hands in mine, asking, “Have you washed your hands?” Quickly, they shouted in unison, “Yes!” The first two passed Grandma’s feel-and-sniff test as their hands were still semi-moist, clean, and fragrant. The third reluctantly held out his hands for inspection.

They were dry, dirty, and smelled terrible.

But from that day forward, all were able to honestly say “Yes!” when asked whether they’d washed their hands. Though immature, they were learning to respect Grandma’s rules and develop character traits of honesty, responsibility, and cleanliness. Our Father in heaven has given us ten foundational rules of conduct for character development. These principles are found in Exodus 20:1–17.

God gave these precepts, knowing that because of our love and respect for Him —and by obeying them through the indwelling of His Spirit— we might develop characters that reflect His and be blessings to others.

These precepts show us, like a mirror, when and where our characters are distorted or unclean, just as the feel-and-sniff test revealed whether or not the dirty hands of our grandsons needed attention. Through His life of surrender and obedience to the will of His Father, Jesus Christ showed the excellence of character that He wants us to develop through a loving relationship with Him. Psalm 19:7 tells us, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul” (KJV). Therefore, if the law that reflects God’s character is perfect, it is changeless and eternal. Scripture shares with us that not one letter is permitted to be changed within the law of God (see Matthew 5:18).

Logic tells me that the original “document” engraved in stone and written by God’s finger cannot truly be altered by even one stroke of a pen or any human decree. Any such attempt to do so by human beings is a forgery —the falsification of a legal document given by the God of heaven and Earth and sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary.

Dottie Barnett