Both adults and children often think that the Ten Commandments are just a list of dos and don’ts. We seldom see that the Commandments are not only specific rules but also guidelines that can help us make decisions about things that appear to be outside the intention of the explicit command and therefore useful for every step and decision in our lives. As a result, it is important that we learn the Ten Commandments, the principals they reflect and learn how they apply to every situation in our lives.
The First Commandment
The first law from God in Exodus 20 is “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.’ We often think of ‘other gods’ as being gods found in other religions or old-fashioned idols. However, God’s intentions are deeper than preventing us from following another religion. He wants us to put Him first all of the time. Not because He is an egotistical, self-centered bully but because He loves us so much He wants us to love Him in the same way. He knows that the only way we can be fulfilled is through His love.
It is easy to think that believing in God and having no idols is enough. But God wants us completely in every part of our day and life. If we are not completely focused on Him, we are in danger of worshiping whatever has taken His place as the focus of our life. If we always find our spare moments filled with thoughts of another person or activity, one that is not concerned with God, there is a possibility that we have created an idol for ourselves
This is a hard law for adults to understand and obey. How do we teach our children to focus on God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength so that no idol slips in to take His place? How do we help children learn to put God first? One way is to use an example of baby ducks and how they imprint.
How Baby Ducks Imprint
When baby ducks hatch, they don’t know they are ducks. When a duckling hatches the first thing it should see is either its mother or a brother or sister. So God created baby ducks to think that if something moves and stays near by, it must be its mother. It doesn’t matter if it is a duck, a dog, a cow, or a person. Baby ducks think it is their mother and they believe that they are its baby. If a duckling imprints on a dog, it will grow up thinking that he is a dog.
Ducklings look to the creature they imprinted on to provide them with warmth, protection, food, and to teach them how to live. Baby ducks who are kept as pets and who are separated from their mother, will never lead normal duck lives. If duckling’s owner gets bored with it and decides to return it to the wild, the poor baby duck thinks that its mother is abandoning him and becomes frantic. The lost duckling will approach any human that comes near to him hoping that he will find his mother. The creature that a duckling imprints on is always the first thing the duckling thinks about and the duckling believes that the most important creature in the world is their ‘mother.’
Imprinting on God
Christians need to learn to think like ducks. We need to imprint on God and look to Him provide warmth, our daily needs, protection, and to teach us how to live. We need to imprint on God so that if we get lost; we become frantic and go back to God. If God is what we imprint our lives on, we will not have to worry about messing up and worshiping idols because we will have no room in our minds for other gods because the true God is always the first thing we think about..
Fortunately, baby ducks are born with instincts. They know how to swim without a Mother to teach them. But even with instincts, they will never completely live the normal duck lives they were intended for if they do not have a proper mother to teach them. We are like ducks in that if we do not imprint on God, we can live normal lives according to the world’s standards. But we will never live the life of fulfillment that God intends for us if we do not focus on Him and ‘imprint’ Him on our life.
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