Things I Wish the Bible Said

     When my kids were growing up and I was teaching them to apply the truths of the Bible to their lives, I noticed it was a couple truths short.  It would have been so handy for me if the God had added a couple more commandments:  Thou shalt not drink alcohol.  Thou shalt not gamble.  No thinking required, just follow the list. Those additions would have made my job as a mother so much easier as my kids were getting ready to leave home, but after spending all those years teaching them to interpret the Bible literally I was in no position to extemporize.  Since the whole theme of the Bible is that God  is in control of everything, gambling seems contraindicated because it is predicated on chance or luck, but there is no command against it.  And although the Bible prohibits drunkenness it does not forbid drinking alcohol, no matter how badly we want it to.  For the most part God wants us to do the hard work of applying the principles of the Bible to our specific situations instead of relying on a list, even when it involves alcohol.  I did warn them that there are alcoholics on both sides of our family and that the safest course would be abstinence but they would have to make their own choice when they were old enough to drink.  A good old commandment would have been so much easier.
     There is a handy verse in Leviticus 19 about not getting a tattoo, but I was honest enough to admit to my children that the context was referring to pagan grieving rituals.  Done in by the context rule! Also the verse immediately preceding it (which non Hassidic parents never quote) is about not shaving the hair at the sides of your head and the trimming of beards. After training my children all through their years at home to rely on God's word alone as their authority of faith and practice, I should not be disappointed if they do.  My children have made their own decisions and have not become alcoholics, gamblers or pagans.  Listless Christians rely on lists.  Even the lost like lists.  Those who choose the labor of study and application of Bible truths have more than lists, they have light.