"Look, Grandpa!" exclaimed Lisa, pointing to the ground. "Another mushroom!" She was visiting her grandparents for the weekend, and she and Grandpa were on a nature hike, looking for mushrooms.

Grandpa grinned as he put the mushroom in his bag. "We'll enjoy these in Grandma's stew tonight," he said.

"I've got an idea, Grandpa," said Lisa as she swatted a mosquito. "Let's dig some up by the roots and put them in your garden. Then you won't have to come so far to get them."

Grandpa laughed. "I'm afraid they wouldn't do too well in the garden," he said. "Most vegetables enjoy lots of sunlight and good, loose soil to sink their roots into, but mushrooms prefer dark, moist conditions. They don't have real roots or leaves at all."

Lisa nodded. "Yeah-they're funny-looking," she said.

Grandpa smiled. "I have to teach the senior adult Sunday school class this week," he said. "Maybe I'll take a mushroom or two along to use as an object lesson. What do you think of that idea?"

"A mushroom? For an object lesson?" asked Lisa. "What lesson would it teach?"

"Oh, I could point out that, unlike mushrooms, Christians do have roots-we're 'rooted' in Jesus," said Grandpa. "Or I could explain that if we become lazy and depend on other people for all our Bible knowledge instead of studying and finding out things for ourselves, we're too much like mushrooms. They don't make their own food but depend on other plants."

"But we should listen to our pastor and Sunday school teachers, shouldn't we?" asked Lisa.

"Absolutely, but we should also study God's Word on our own-asking God to help us understand passages that aren't clear to us," said Grandpa. "With no roots, mushrooms can be easily pulled out, and Christians who are not well rooted in God's Word can often be easily misled and persuaded to follow false teaching." He held up a mushroom. "So what do you think?" he asked.

Lisa grinned. "Go for it, Grandpa," she said.
Be "rooted" in God's Word