Learn to Say "Not Good"

          Michael Ridgway came to pastor our church at Ralston in the early 2000s. Our church was one of his first pastorates. He had a heart for a rural congregation and community since he lived his adolescent years with his grandparents in a farm setting that transformed his life. Kelly, his wife, became a well-respected mathematics teacher at Woodland High School.

Kelly, Michael, Arizona, Rachel (wife of Chris), and Chris at the
120th Anniversary of Ralston Baptist Church. Joshua had up-
coming tests in his coursework in law at University of Tulsa that
kept him from being with his family that day.

            Michael and Kelly’s three children were the last pastor’s children I taught. What a treat! Chris, Joshua, and Arizona had been “schooled” in the Bible stories.

Chris, Joshua, and Arizona at
my parents' 60th wedding
anniversary in 2008.

 Arizona Ridgway, their only daughter, was around five years old when I first met her. I had been given a sturdy gift bag with popular animated heroines being illustrated in vivid colors. Its sturdiness rendered it perfect for carrying the TeamKids teaching materials. I had seen none of the animated movies but did know the original stories of each character or historical figure. As soon as incredibly smart Arizona spotted the bag at the Wednesday night TeamKids session, she pointed to each figure and said in a low, but emphatic voice, “Not good.”*
            Kelly and Michael had trained their children to discern between Biblical truth and ideologies based on false religions or any concepts with no regard for the true God. How deceptive can music, movies, social media, and other areas of influence be to children raised in a Biblically-based home unless they have been trained to recognize and refute and "destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God..." (2 Corinthians 10:5)!
            To produce an Arizona with convictions that stands in any situation, God’s Word must be taught consistently in the home with discussion of the ways to apply the principles in everyday life.
            Moses gave the nation of Israel the three main principles and “best practice” for teaching them in Deuteronomy 6:4-7:
Three Main Principles Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.** Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.
Best Practice for Teaching Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road,*** when you lie down and when you get up.
            Asaph, the worship leader appointed by King David, wrote a psalm (song) almost 1400 years after God inspired Moses to write God’s commands in Deuteronomy. Asaph dedicated the lengthy Psalm 78 to teach the young Israelis of their Almighty God and his work in their nation. Asaph’s introductory words in verses 4-7 emphasize the necessity of teaching God’s Word:
            We must not hide them from their children, but must tell a future generation the praises of the Lord, His might, and the wonderful works He has performed. He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children so that a future generation - children yet to be born – might know. They were to rise and tell their children so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God’s works, but keep His commands.
            The power of teaching a little one was so evident in Arizona’s life and impacted me greatly. To this day, hardly does a day pass without me saying “not good.” It may be an article Mother is reading to me or a news story we may be hearing. Occasionally, Mother asks me to repeat the account of when I first heard “not good" almost 20 years ago. We end up recalling good memories of the Ridgway family.
            No matter our age, we must be discerning in sifting the truth from error, no matter how insignificant it may seem. In Galatians 5:9 Paul warned about the harmful impact of false beliefs, “A little yeast leavens the whole lump of dough.”
            Finally, Jesus warned about the most powerful religious groups and political factions of His day and compared them to leavening. Just the ingestion of a miniscule grain of a false concept can erode a person’s godly perspective and undermine a true relationship with God in exchange for ideologies devoid of the power of God at work. Let's be like Arizona and say, "Not good."

*I retired that repurposed gift bag.

**Other translations use: the only God, the only Lord, the only true God, or God, the only One.

*** This phrase implies in the Biblical culture "relaxed walking" or "walking as a means of travel." For the 21st century, training should be done during travel.