Good Morning Friends,
“This is how we know that we love the
children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for
God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born
of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world,
even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that
Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 John 5:2-5)
When I was growing up, I thought the demands
my parents made of me were unreasonable. They just seemed designed to make my
life more miserable. It seemed like a power play on their part – just getting
me to do what they wanted me to do.
I didn’t understand why I needed to brush my
teeth so often, especially before going to bed. I was always tired by that time
and brushing my teeth wasn’t something I really wanted to do or felt was
necessary. And, then there was the whole bath thing. I mean, do you really have
to bathe every day? As I got older there were a lot of other demands they made
me – curfew and telling them where I was and a bunch more. A lot of their
demands were things that I just didn’t understand and just didn’t like.
By the time I became a parent the demands of
my parents didn’t seem so unreasonable. By that time I realized that what my
parents demanded were the same things I was going to demand of my children and
they made sense. Brushing teeth isn’t just to make a child’s life miserable,
but to protect them from future decay. Life is better when you learn good
dental hygiene. I’m sure that most people are really glad my parents taught me
to bathe regularly. That demand makes sense to me now, too. The rest of their
demands make sense from the hindsight of maturity.
The demands of my parents seemed burdensome,
but they weren’t really. They were just good sense. I found out life worked
better when I learned the things my parents sought to teach me through their
demands.
We can say the same things about God’s
commands. They may seem burdensome, but they’re not. They may seem like a power
play, but they aren’t. They are just good sense. God’s commands are given for
our sake. Life works better when we follow His commands.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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