Obedience

We have been talking a lot about obedience in our house lately. With 5 kids, really how can it not come up hourly? And so I have been doing a lot of thinking about obedience. Do you ever have those things that come out of your mouth and you say them to your kids...then later in the day/week/year...you hear God speaking to you through yoru own words? Over the past year, God has been speaking loudly to me about obedience.


In any typical day, I will say no less than 100 times, "You need to obey Mommy," or "I know you don't want to but obeying is not about what you want - it is doing what I asked despite what you want." And the kicker is, "It is not obeying if you are whining about it." I have had endless conversations with my kids about what obeying is and most importantly, what it is not. To give a simple illustration: Giving your kids ice cream to eat and telling them to eat it. Great! They obey because it is something that they want to do. Put a plate of broccoli down at the table and see if you get the same reaction. I don't. BUT obeying is giving the same reaction whether or not you like the circumstance. This is a lesson that will never be done being taught because even as adults, we only like to obey when it is what we want. We also get better at justifying why it is not God's will for our life when it doesn't align with what we want.


Over the past year, I have had to obey God and put aside my will and follow His will for my life. The first few trials, I will admit, were done so with kicking and screaming. There were many days of, "this is not what I want," and "I don't want to do it this way (or at all for that matter)!" I recently heard someone state, "I keep asking myself if I'm really supposed to sacrifice myself for ________?" I have been there, I have asked God "how much more am I to take?" And even like a little child, I have politely refused (as if that matters), and said, "No thank" you to God. Do you see how many "I"s were in those past few sentences? I was to focused on me, and not focused enough on God because if I was, I would have known that He gives no more to us than we can handle, so I must be able to handle the portion and the cup that He has given to me. He has even pushed me far beyond what I believe that I could handle, just to show me that it is He who handles it, and I need to put my trust in Him.


A lot of the times that God has asked me to follow His will (to obey Him), they have been life altering things. Things that forever would change my life, things that I didn't necessarily want to do, things that forced me entirely out of my comfort zone...BUT had I not done what God asked me to do, I would've miss out on so many of his wonderful blessings. And example that I can share would be when we went to Africa. I was NOT going. Didn't want to go...had a million reasons why I couldn't go, but God's voice was still there saying "Go". I tried to quiet this voice, but couldn't. I could have chosen not to go, ignore God. If I would have, I would have miss out on some truly amazing blessings, and some truly amazing life lessons that can only be learned by submit to God's will. It was not the easiest trip for me for so many reasons, but I knew going into it that if God asked me to go, He will give me peace while there. And He did...He didn't put me in a bubble and make everything easy, but He did protect my heart from sinful worry and anxiety. The flight was long, and bumpy, there was a man killed at the end of our street, the driving was insanely unsafe, we got misquito bites, were a little hungry...real fears were all around us, but there was a peace that I had (not because things were going smoothly or easily) because I knew that this is where God wanted me.


I was plagued again last night and early this morning about things that I would like to have differently in my life. I didn't feel like going to worship because of some current situations. I wanted to go to be refreshed by God and because He has asked us to go, but in one of the very few times in my life, I just didn't want to go. Then a line of a song came to me, and reminded me all of this is for HIM not me...


It's all about You, Jesus
And all this is for You, for Your glory and Your fame
It's not about me
As if You should do things my way
You alone are God and I surrender, To Your ways.


And God gave me peace. I had peace that all this is for Him and His glory. Funny how you can have peace, not getting your own way. Only God can do that. God can use many methods to make us more like Him. Those of you who know me can understand how He usually has to use the "refining fire" instead of the gentle whispers to get me to obey Him.


So in the next 5 or so minutes, when one of my kids disobeys Mommy, I will try to remind them that it glorifies God when they obey Mommy (think that will work for the veggies too?). It will also remind me why I must obey God, not because His will aligns with what I want, but because it brings Him glory.

Stress brings "Fred" back (that ones for you, Danielle:-) )