Saturday, March 12, 2011

Sins of omission

Cathy has written an excellent post here on sins of omission, the good things we should do but don't.

I am reading a Christian book at the moment which claims that not teaching your daughter to do her hair and make-up, or not buying her attractive clothes, are sins of omission.

Hmmm. Something is wrong here. I think these are trivial matters, not sins. Should we teach our daughters to be feminine? Yes, of course. Will I teach my daughter to do her hair and make-up? Maybe. I'll keep her hair neat and tidy. I don't wear make-up myself so I can't really see the need to teach her that.

But saying it's sinful to not do these things is a bit much. I'm trying to be respectful here of the older woman who wrote this book but if we are looking at matters of righteousness, matters of wisdom and matters of triviality (with acknowledgement to Guidance and the Voice of God here), it's my opinion that this one is definitely in the trivial category.

2 comments:

Jenny said...

Let me guess - is that book from the US? I think there are cultural things plonked onto Christianity with that whole issue - very strange to me. I would wonder what cultural things I label as 'Christian' - hard to see sometimes when it feels normal and right in your own framework of life.

Karen said...

You guessed right. You make a good point though...and I have been trying today to think of an example of something cultural that I have labelled as being Christian without success so maybe I am just not aware of this in my own life?