Pop Quiz

When I was in school, there is nothing I hated worse than a pop quiz! Although I may have been keeping up with the required assignments, required reading, and preparing for the expected tests, the unexpected tests had the potential to wreck your overall average in the class. In our teen class last Wednesday night, we discussed the “pop quizzes” of life. The pop quizzes of life include those unexpected phone calls that bring bad news, the unexpected betrayal of a friend, or any other unexpected event that tests our faith or our spiritual endurance. Some of the tests we experience in life are often small tests of character or integrity such as when we might be tempted to tell a “little, white lie,” cheat on a test, or even fail to clean up the mess we did not make. These little tests may not seem important at the time, but we were reminded by the scripture in Luke 16:10 that “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” One of the purposes of these little tests in life is to help prepare us for the bigger tests in life. One of the overarching purposes of the “Habitudes” curriculum we are studying on Wednesday night is to prepare our teen students, in advance, for these tests of life. If we do not prepare in advance for the crises, or “pop quizzes,” in life, we will often be unprepared to weather the storm and, instead, react in a manner that is not Christ-like. Although spiritual preparation for the unexpected tests in life may not make the test easy or pain-free, we were reminded by the scriptures in Deuteronomy 8:15-16 that the difficult tests of life result in a stronger character and closer relationship to God if we abide in His word.