Sole purpose of spiritual education = connect people to God. Not craft behavior. Not get results. Just intimacy with God.
The Prodigal Son parable: the father runs to the returning son. The point isn’t Bible knowledge — the point is feeling who God is. Every parable that works does this: it creates an encounter with God’s character, not a rulebook.
The trap: Teaching religion to get behavior (tithes, marriage, obedience) = lack of faith. Real change agent is God, not curriculum. If you teach for behavior, you’re saying “I don’t trust God to transform this person through relationship — I need to leverage the curriculum to make it happen.”
The Tamar principle: Tamar (Genesis 38) followed God’s voice even when it looked crazy and sinful on the surface. She ended up in the lineage of Jesus. Takes guts to trust others into God’s hands and not manipulate the outcome.
For gamblers, broken spouses, difficult people: They don’t need a behavior fix. They need healing. Only God does that. Spiritual education creates the conditions; God does the work.
The pastoral application: Preachy, controlling people usually need more grace themselves — not more authority over others. When someone pushes hard on your behavior, they’re probably managing their own anxiety through your compliance.
“Best parenting advice from an elder: told kids to follow their heart.”