Thou Shall Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Manservant

Last month, Brigid worked very hard in her 1st grade class project to memorize all of the 10 Commandments. I admit, I didn’t even have them memorized myself, so it’s been educational for me as I helped her as well! We got through the first few pretty smoothly, but hit a snag at the whole “Thou shall not commit adultery” thing.

This is not first grade material!

I explained what it meant, sans the whole sex thing, and Brigid pretty much understood and went on. This surprised me from a girl who could cripple me to my knees with all the Why? Why? Why?’s on everything when she was just a bit younger.

The one that really stumped her was #10

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.”

The questions poured in about all things thou shalt not be coveting! She was particularly interested in the whole servant idea, and I told her it was a person who lived in the house and had to do everything they were told. I was glad she was more interested in this one than the adultery topic, since it’s a lot easier to explain, however, I may not have done a very good job…

Fast forward a couple months to last Sunday morning. We ran into her teacher and her husband on the way to Sunday school. I had never met her teacher’s husband, and Brigid proudly introduced him to me. “That’s Mr. B! That’s Mrs. B’s manservant!”

Whoops! “Husband Brigid! Husband!” Of course Mrs. B understood the mix-up, since she is the one teaching the children the commandments. I would hate for her to think that we're teaching the children that husband and manservant could be used interchangeably.

One thing’s for certain though. I will be referring to Paul as my “manservant” from now on.