OLD WIVES' TALES: THE TRUTH
Have you ever believed something, only to find out that it wasn’t true? Consider these old wives tales:
"If you go outside with wet hair, you’ll catch a cold." Cold weather, wet hair, and chills don’t cause colds; viruses do.
"Reading in dim light will damage your eyes." Although reading in a dimly lit room won’t do any harm, good lighting can help prevent eye fatigue and make reading easier.
"Cracking knuckles causes arthritis." Habitual knuckle-cracking tends to cause hand swelling and decreased grip strength but does not cause arthritis.
"Feed a cold, starve a fever." Both high fevers and colds can cause fluid loss. So you should drink plenty of liquids and eat regular meals. Missing nutrients may only make a person sicker.
"Wait an hour after eating before swimming." The Red Cross says it’s usually not necessary for you or your child to wait an hour before going in the water.
"Chocolate causes acne." Sudies show that no specific food has been proven to cause acne.
"Eating carrots will improve your eyesight." While carrots help maintain healthy eyesight, they don’t improve vision.
Sometimes we are raised to believe something only later to find out it’s not true. That’s what happened to the Apostle Peter. From birth, good Jewish boys and girls were taught that the Gentiles or everybody that wasn’t a Jew was unclean. Jews referred to non-Jews as "Gentile dogs". They wouldn’t sit down to eat with them and were prohibited from even entering a Gentile home. If a Jew touched a Gentile, even accidentally, he would have to go home and wash to become ritually pure. And, if they had to buy something from a Gentile merchant, that item had to be washed before it was used, even furniture. Now in the early church, the followers of Jesus were Jews who believed the Messiah had come. So they practiced the Jewish faith and all of its traditions, avoiding things like the unclean foods and even Gentiles. Now, however, God intended to change all of that.