Hammer on Anvil '

Basic Algebra: 3X=12, solve for X. If you're like me, you'd say 4, but still get points taken away for not showing the work. I always hated that in math classes. If my answer is correct, what does it matter? This was a recurring question from me to one of my teachers, but she won. (Being in charge of grades helped her a lot) It wasn't that I wouldn't show work, but it seemed so unnecessary for simple problems like above. Go a bit further back. Do you remember memorizing times tables? 8x8=64. It is so engrained now that I do not consciously think about 8+8+8+8+8+8+8+8=64

What's my point in this math review? I've been thinking about how somethings become so basic to us that we no longer give any thought to the process anymore. We forget about how we came to this point, all the work, all the studying, all the headache. I imagine trying to get my 9 year old niece to understand X=4 without her having learned about what I'm doing in my head; she wouldn't. So I now wonder about other things that I have taken for granted, things I have forgotten about the long process to get me where I am, understanding what I do.

We often hear or perhaps have even said, "Jesus is the answer" but have we forgotten the process of how we got to that conclusion. Do we remember all that we went through to arrive at the point where we believed that was so? Would someone be as quick to see the answer?