Category: obedience

The Blessings of Obedience
obedience · Parenting

The Blessings of Obedience

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I am home after having a time to visit my parents in Kentucky.  I just have to tell you how good the Lord is!

During the time of caring for my Mother-in-law, I often felt like I was neglecting my own parents.  I don’t just mean the months of her cancer, but the years that she lived here in the same town.  We were her only family, and we felt the need to care for her – and were glad to do it.  There were many times, however, that I couldn’t be home with my own parents, and though I knew they understood,  my heart missed them so much.  Then when the serious illness hit my MIL, and the care was intense, I missed my parents even more – probably due to the increase of stress and emotion.

What made that time easier for me was the understanding of my parents.  They never made me feel guilty for not coming home.  They encouraged me in what I was doing.  They prayed for me.  They told me they understood…and they really did.

Now my mother-in-law is in heaven and I have no regrets.  I know we did the right thing in caring for her.  I know that even the sacrifice of the times I would have liked to have been in Kentucky was the right choice.  Then the Lord graciously opened up the opportunity for me to go and visit my parents while my husband attended a men’s conference last weekend.  He left on Thursday morning.  An hour later, my car was headed towards Lexington.  I was to come home on Saturday.  Two days – not long, but I was glad to take it!  Then the Lord sent SNOW!  It was the treacherous traveling kind – especially on the mountain roads I’d have to drive on to get home.  There was no question – I had to stay put.  Sunday it snowed again.  So I had two extra days to rest, visit with my parents, chat, attend church with them, and I even got help from my dad sewing my quilt squares together (he is a great ironer!). We had a sweet time together, and how I thank the Lord for giving me the desire of my heart at the time when my heart needed it so desperately!

                                           

There are two lessons here:

  1. Obedience brings blessing.  That’s not the reason we obey, but it is a by-product.  God is a loving God, and He blesses us when we obey Him.  
  2. Parents that let go of their children are doing them a great service!  If my parents had made me feel guilty, I’m not sure I could have dealt with it.  They let go of me when I left home many years ago.  They always welcome me when I’m able to come visit, but they have NEVER pressured me or given me a guilt trip over not being at a family event.  They are obeying  a biblical command – Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24  
Now, apply this to you –
  • If you’re being obedient, but having to let go of something else in the meantime, be patient.  Keep obeying.  In His time, the Lord will reward you.
  • If you’re a parent of a child who has left home – LET THEM GO!  They have enough pressure in dealing with life without having to deal with trying to keep their parents happy with their decisions.  Pray they’ll make right choices, then encourage them in what they’re doing rather than laying on a guilt trip because they can’t attend your family reunion, Grandma’s birthday or Sunday dinner.  Be a parent who rests in a sovereign God and obeys His Word enough to let them leave and cleave.
I’m home now and feel rested and so very blessed by my God Who gives me what I do not deserve – blessings, sweet, godly parents, and time away!
What do you struggle with in regards to obedience?  Do you have trouble letting go of your children? Or…Are you struggling with parents who have not cut the apron strings? How are you dealing with it?  I’d love to hear.

obedience

Dreaded Appointment

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Have you ever had an appointment that loomed in front of you?  Dentist appointments are like that for me.  I don’t mind having my normal routine six-month check-up, but if there’s any work that needs to be done, that date on the calendar looks at me like an angry bull.  I know it’s coming, and I dread it.  I even make references to other dates around that one date.  “That upcoming meeting will be after that appointment.  We go on vacation just before the appointment. On and on it goes until the thing is finally over.

When Christ came to this earth, He came to die for our sins – that was always before Him.  While I know that He did it willingly and because He loved us, I also see in Scripture that the cross was always looming before Him.  He made many references to His death and the suffering as He walked and ministered.  In Mark 14, for example, Mary of Bethany has come and annointed His head with oil and was then rebuked by onlookers for the “waste” of the perfume.  Jesus said in verses 6-8, “Let her alone: why trouble ye her?  she hath wrought a good work on me.  For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.  She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to annoint my body to the buying.”  This is only one of many times that Christ makes reference to His suffering and death that is to come.  It was always before Him.  He always knew that He would suffer the wrath of God toward our sin as He bore our punishment in our place! 

An amazing thing about this is that He could have said “no.”  He could have retreated, but He didn’t.  He fulfilled God’s plan for our salvation, spite the awfulness, the isolation from His Father, and the pain of the cross.  That date with death was fulfilled (but praise the Lord, so was His resurrection!).

As I’ve pondered this thought in recent days, it makes me shake my head at my own whimpiness.  Our Savior had the cross and all its suffering ahead of Him, yet He kept pressing forward.  He kept on, knowing that this “appointment” with the cross would come.  My pressing forward for Christ brings no suffering.  I can serve Him without risks on my life.  No pain is involved, no persecution, yet I choose my way instead of His.  I serve if it’s convenient, if it’s easy, if I feel like it. 

Is this really following Christ? No.  For He said, “Deny yourself.  Take up your cross.”  You know what?  The times that I really do that, there is no dread in it!  There is only joy, because the things that are accomplished are what only God can do. Is this why the Scripture says, “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God”? (Hebrews 12:2)

What happens when I keep the appointment with denying myself?  What is the result when I serve when I don’t necessarily feel like it?  What happens when I do His will and not mine?  His name is glorified, and I am becoming more like my Savior.  Little by little.  No, there’s no dread in that!

Are you denying yourself consistently, or only being obedient when it’s easy?  Consider the dread of the cross that Christ took for you…then follow His example.

With love,