This morning when I looked out of my kitchen window I noticed a fledgling sparrow sitting on a small branch adjacent to my bird-feeder. A series of adult sparrows helped themselves to the seed in the feeder. At one point, a female sparrow, presumably the fledgling’s mother, fed it by taking seed from the feeder and landing next to it. The mother eventually flew off leaving the young one alone. It continued to chirp, flapping its wings and opening its mouth wide as if saying “feed me,” trying to attract the attention of its parents. It edged nearer the feeder but seemed unwilling to make the short flight of a few inches to one of the perches on the feeder. Bemused, it flew off in search of its parents. When we are young in the faith we expect to be spiritually spoon-fed and cry out to those involved in our spiritual new birth to be fed. But there comes a time when we have to learn to feed ourselves, even if it means we are bemused when the spoon-feeding stops. One of the reasons people give for changing churches is that they are not being fed spiritually. Surely, it should be a sign of maturity that we learn to feed ourselves. True, we have the Christian media these days, though that can be a rather passive way of learning. Reading Christian literature is a good thing, but many of the newer titles are produced by television ministries, which are able to advertise them heavily. When buying Christian books you cannot beat browsing in a Christian book shop, if you can find one these days, rather than just clicking on the internet. A new believer may be unaware of many Christian classics of previous generations. Spiritual truths are timeless, biographies of those of an earlier generation of Christians may be easier to digest than Bible commentaries for newer believers. Just because someone has a big television ministry it does not mean that they have greater spiritual insight than those who do not. The suspicion will always be that some of the books produced by television ministries are made to provide a revenue stream rather to fill a God-inspired need. Discernment is something that should grow in time providing that we feed our minds with a spiritually balanced diet. It is equally as important as with our physical diet.