Everything I ever really needed to know I learned in (spiritual) kindergarten

Robert Fulghum wrote Everything I ever really needed to know I learned in kindergarten. Though I have never read the book, I’m guessing that’s its premise is not that difficult to figure out. The things that truly matter educationally were learned at a very early age, before the complexity of “higher education” and the debates over academic matters, we learned to read, write, think logically, and so forth.

Well, I was recently thinking that the same might be true when it comes to spiritual matters. Perhaps, the things that matter most are those I learned in spiritual kindergarten. Way back then–before Jesus’ studies and Redaction Criticism, prior to my exposure to liberalism and conservatism, before modernism and postmodernism, before a lot of things–I was told that God sent his only Son to rescue us through his death. He came, lived, died, and conquered the grave. He taught and called us to follow. He left but promised to return one day. He invited us to believe in him, to lean on him, to trust him for everything.

I certainly have no desire to minimize the things that have taken place since “kindergarten.” Some of these are extremely significant. Furthermore, I have to admit that some of the caretakers of education, those who taught me in “grade school,” “middle school,” “high school,” and beyond, make me feel a bit uncomfortable. Their rules and dress code and educational assumptions are sometimes a real turn off. Still, all that said, many of these people started where I did, in “kindergarten.” And, in my better moments at least, I suppose we may be on the same page more than I'd like to admit. More so, whatever else is true (and other things are true!), the things that matter the most, the realities that determine heaven and hell, the things that will last forever, are those I learned at that very early age. Perhaps it’s true: Everything I ever really need to know I learned in (spiritual) kindergarten.