“For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Pet. 1:8

I recently visited the Western Museum of Mining and Industry with my 9-year-old grandson, Corban.  We were fascinated by some of the large steam engines housed there used in the mining industry during the early 1900’s. Each engine depended upon several McCoy oil cups to keep the engines well-oiled and functioning.  Inferior copycat versions of the oil cup soon appeared, but they never measured up to the original McCoy oil cup.  Operators soon demanded the “real McCoy” to keep their machinery operating.

In the arena of genuine faith, the “real McCoy” is measured, not by how we talk, but how we walk.  That’s the point of Peter’s urging believers to make every effort to add to their faith those qualities that prove it’s the real deal.  If these things Peter lists are parts that increasingly characterize our living, then our grandchildren—indeed, everyone in our sphere of influence—will know that our faith is the “real McCoy” rather than a cheap, useless imitation.  They will be the blessed beneficiaries of an authentic faith that is effective and productive because our roots grow deep in our knowledge of Christ in whose life ours is hidden.

Do your children and grandchildren pay attention when you speak God’s Word into their lives because they know you are the “real McCoy”?

GRANDPAUSE: When it comes to faith, the proof of the pudding is in the way we live, not in the way we speak. –C. Harper