In being a nanny all these years, I obviously have a love and fondness for children. There is something so amazing about them. Maybe it’s their eyes that sparkle with trust and innocence. Or their ability to genuinely enjoy the little things in life.
Recently I was watching my nephews, Gabe and Mikey for the day. We were having the best morning. We had letter shaped pancakes, snuggled watching cartoons, and were going to see a movie later that afternoon.
Stopping at the grocery store on our way I had an encounter with Mikey that got me thinking. To keep it short, basically I asked him to stop leaning on something because it wasn’t safe (his finger were at risk of being squished) with a warning of consequence. And again, after not listening the first time he was corrected and stopped, for a moment… then with blatant defiance he looked me right in the eyes and did it once more. Obviously, this proved to be a bad decision because no more warnings were left and so, he got no candy at the movies.
This incident (which really isn’t a huge deal – he is a wonderful child) got me thinking about defiance. Recently I was reading Luke 18:15-17, the passage that talks about Jesus calling the little children to come to him. He says anyone who doesn’t accept God like children will not enter the kingdom. Here Jesus is calling us to have childlike faith (trust, innocence, purity, and passion too!). This brings us back to Mikey, just like the choice he made listen to the warnings; we too, blatantly defy God. We look him right in the eyes and disobey him. We choose not listen even though His instructions are clearly for our own good.
Why is it so hard to accept the instructions as love, rather than a set of rules or restrictions God is putting on our lives?
After receiving his consequence. I sat with Mikey and explained how much I loved him and that I was not angry or upset at him, but what I had asked of him was only to keep him safe. God does the same thing with us. He sits with us- loves us- without anger and reminds us his instructions, his guidance, his discipline is to better our lives. He has asked certain things of us. Only when we realize that God’s way is the right way, not because “he says so” but because he loves us and he wants us to be safe, will we truly grasp what he is calling us to become. He is guarding our hearts, keeping us in line with His path through correction and guidance.
It’s time to stop being defiant...time to grow up.
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