Thank you, His Girl Amber for hosting, and blessings to Melissa, who is on a missions trip to Peru! Here are the questions for this week:
1. What blessings or consequences have you personally reaped from some act of obedience or disobedience in your life? Well, friends, I'm glad you asked. For I learned something the hard way just last night. Actually, like so much of what I know to be true, it was a re-learning. Scenario: Beautiful tweenage dtr made poor choice at dinner, after being told the issue and the consequences of continuing with poor behavior. The consequence was being told to leave the table, and thus not getting to finish her dinner. Didn't matter to her that she was 80% finished. She began to throw lots and lots of bait for her father and I to snap up in the form of an escalated argument. But this story isn't about her. It's about me. Yes, she acted out. And yes, initially we handled her behavior accordingly. But guess what? You know what happened, don't you? She baited and baited and baited, and suddenly, she was not the only tweenage girl in the house. I blew my top such that Mt Vesuvius would've been proud. Or Satan, either one. There was yelling. There was cussing, though thank God, not directed to her. There was gnashing of teeth and loss of temper. Good times. Except not. So there I was, in direct disobedience of last week's verse: "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord" Hebrews 12:14.
I so hate it when that happens. Yes, I probably had some of righteous in my anger. But I'm also the grown up, and I always have a way out from under (1Cor10:13) giving into the temptation of yelling losing my temper. Except, I chose wrong.
Well, thankfully, the God of grace, wisdom, mercy, and all that is holy immediately called me to repentance. After going to Him, and when she was ready to talk, I apologized for my actions, asked for her forgiveness, and we went to the Throne together in prayer. Writing this brings tears to my eyes, not merely because of my mistake and regret, but because of His amazing ability and wish to wipe everything clean between J and me and between ourselves and Him. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude.
Apparently, not only am I learning (the hard way) "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." John 14:15, but each day, re-learning about the power of His love for me and my daughter.
BTW, we are fine. Honestly and completely. But I still feel the holes where I nailed in those nasty words, and, though the nails are now gone--Praise Him--because I'm human, it'll take a while for my emotions to catch up with the Truth.
So, it's really better just to obey right away, is what I'm sayin'. :)
2. Why is it so important that we obey God completely? Why is it not enough to obey some, or even most, of what He says? One of my dear friends here IRL is a children's pastor. She tells our kids to "obey all the way". I love that! Well, I love that when we're talking about children obeying their parents. Ahem. When it gets a little tighter and becomes about me obeying my Father...well...sometimes i squirm. But we all know it's true. Partial obedience is like partial truth. Not obedience and not truth. As with the story of Samuel and Saul and Saul's disobedience re: wiping out the Amekelites...God didn't ask Saul to kill most of the folks and the gross and weak animals, saving the best animals for "sacrifice" (yeah, that's the ticket--"sacrifice"). Thru Samuel, he was very plain: Kill them all. Period. When Saul reinterpreted God's words, by surely knowing better about what God wanted than God did, he disobeyed. I'd like to say this story has an unfamiliar ring to it, but...see question 1. There's a book called Half Magic, by Edward Eager which reminds me of a 70s/80s show called Fantasy Island. Both book and show illustrate what happens when you have a wish come true, but only partially. As you can follow, the wish, doesn't really come true at all. With Eager's book, the scenario is funny and gives children something to think about. And of course, the schlocky show Fantasy Island was much darker, but had the same outcome. 1/2 fantasies being no fantasy at all. I think I've beaten this dead horse enough because it really is simple. Not easy, but simple: Do what God says. All of it. Don't think you know more than the Creator of the universe. For that'd be prideful.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Ps. 51:10). In Jesus name. Amen.
