All I Needed to Know I Learned in ... Sunday School?

I know I am going off on a tangent here, away from my destination of a Creationist's view of Chemistry, but I was thinking that there are many books and essays and teachings in the secular world that men use to guide their lives that either contain lessons similar to those in the Word of God or are directly or indirectly based on them. Three such books to me are:

All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff....and it’s all small stuff by Richard Carlson
and
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Each has several key directives to focus on to make your life more relational, less anxious and guided by a purpose or destiny. Lets take a closer look at some of the directives from each book.

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All You Really Need to Know
Can be Learned from the Bible

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All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten is a book of short essays by Robert Fulghum, first published in 1988. The title of the book is taken from the first essay in the volume, which lists lessons normally learned in kindergarten classrooms and explains how the world would be better if we all lived by the same rules; sharing, being kind to one another, cleaning up after ourselves, and living "a balanced life" of work, play, and learning. The book contains fifty short essays, reflecting on topics ranging from surprises, holidays, childhood, death, and the lives of interesting people.

Here are a few of the points Fulghum makes in his opening essay:

• Live a balanced life
• Clean up your own mess
• Play fair
• Share everything

Here are some Bible verses that direct us to a similar path:

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

• Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV) - There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
  
• Isaiah 1:17 (NIV) - Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
  
• Philippians 4:8 (NIV) - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
  

Clean up your own mess - Clean up after yourself.

• Luke 11:25 (NKJV) - "And when he comes, he finds [his house] swept and put in order.
  
• 1 Corinthians 14:40 (NKJV) - Let all things be done decently and in order.
  
• Isaiah 1:16 (NLT) - Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of My sight. Give up your evil ways.
  

Play fair - Don't hit people. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

• Proverbs 2:9 (NIV) - Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path.
  
• Matthew 22:39 (NIV) - And the second [commandment] is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
  
• Romans 12:17 (NIV) - Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
  

Share everything - Don't take things that aren't yours. Put things back where you found them.

• Romans 12:13 (NIV) - Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
  
• Leviticus 19:11 (NIV) - "Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another."
  

In Fulghum's essay the bottom line seems to be live a balanced life and "Obey the Golden Rule,", which the Jesus says sums up the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12 - NIV). So, although this may make you a good person, it will not get you into heaven because Jesus also says: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6 - NIV).

In a subsequent blog we will look at the next book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff....and it’s all small stuff by Richard Carlson and after that the final book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.