Tuesday, April 26, 2011

trust and obey

while i sat waiting in the airport the other day, i watched as a little girl, probably 2-ish, ran away from her mom... giddy, having the time of her life, thinking it was a really fun game. she was at that stage where her little legs wobbled and struggled to keep her upright as she fought for balance with her little arms flailing like she was playing airplane. she squealed and snickered, truly oblivious to the great fear and anxiety she was causing her poor mom. she could've easily fallen and gotten hurt or been lost in the crowd. everyone was awaiting the arrival of our aircraft, which meant that most peoples patience was beginning to wear thin.  not that little girl! she just kept up her game, much to the chagrin of her parents and most of the people sitting around them.  her older sister was dispatched to the role of follower/chaser at one point,  which made the little girl all the more intent on getting away!  i gotta hand it to the parents, though. they maintained a sense of patience and calm that was pretty impressive. they never got angry, lost their temper or screamed obscenities at their daughter from across the terminal...i have seen plenty of parents react explosively in public, it's not pretty. don't do it...      it was a very entertaining show this little one put on.
but here is what i took away from it. disobeying can fun, for a season, but brings with it consequences.  i'm truly glad that the little smiley runner was not lost or injured...though she had a couple of close calls, mainly when she ran straight down the jetway at one point before we started boarding!!! the big sister had to chase her with the gate agent/flight attendant hot on her heels!!!...  maybe her parents disciplined her later, and she learned a lesson, i don't know.  but i DO know that for us, as children of God, obedience comes with blessings, and disobedience comes with consequences.  i watched another little one, even younger than the first, who looked to have only recently begun to walk, continually yank her hand away from her daddy's as he kept trying to grab hers.  you know the way toddlers do, they just want to do it themselves.  and how much are we just like that?  yanking our hand from His, trying it on our own? wanting to do it our way...unknowingly headed straight for a fall.  there are more scriptures than i can count on the subject of obeying.  i'm currently reading through the the Old Testament and the subject of obedience is constantly coming up. (see my previous blog post!)
over the years as a parent, i've been continually aware of how it feels to be obeyed...and how it feels to be disobeyed.  the reasons we as parents tell our kids to do stuff are usually because we know what's best for them, we are out to protect them, help them. and when they disobey it can be so confusing, frustrating, anger-inducing! "this is for your own good!!" you want to tell them!  i love the way God has shown me his heart as my heavenly father through my own eyes as a mommy.  i know it breaks his heart when i disobey, when i ignore his words of wisdom, when i don't respond to his truth.  and i know it's not something that can go on forever without suffering the consequences.
i pray that the Lord will draw us to him, the precious, loving father that he is, and by his kindness cause us to repent and obey. as there are literally hundreds of verses on obeying, i thought instead of giving you a verse on obedience, you could look one up and post it here...

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