Full Circle

Rough.   Day.

In my last post I talked about how our minds are a battlefield.  So wouldn't you know that I'm having a raging battle lately. 

As I sat in church this Sunday listening to the Pastor teach through Luke, one thing he said that  has been on repeat in my mind  was about obedience.

Sometimes, obedience is a touchy subject.  Actually a LOT of times.  Especially in our house.  We've got boys.  THREE of them and there is only four years separating the oldest from the youngest.  So there are days when I say "just obey" countless times....there are days when I hear responses like "I can't wait til I'm grown up and I don't have to obey anyone and I can do whatever I want."

Ahh, I just have to laugh.   Not at their back talking, that's not funny because it's sinful.  But at the fact that all parents will inevitably hear words they once uttered to their parents in their youth. 

Full Circle. 

So, today....as the battle was raging and I was working through a great deal of emotion in my mind, the Lord in His infinite wisdom and great grace spoke to my heart through a passage I had hidden there, not one I read recently but one I taught through with my boys for over a week....

"As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right."  1 Samuel 12:23

My response to all that wars around me, is to respond in obedience to the Word of God.  I read this quote from Spurgeon today, "Each man should use the word of God personally, practically and habitually, that he may see his way and see what lies in it."

It is absolutely my responsibility to read the word, study the word, and hide it in my heart so that I would not sin against the Lord.

As Samuel says in that chapter, I'm responsible for myself, my responses to others.  No matter how 'shocked' I am, if the wrong done to me, my family or my friends by a believer is not outright sin, then I am instructed very clearly to simply pray for others.

So today as the war was waging in my heart and mind, and I run through all the 'options' of my responses...it all comes down to a simple choice.  Obey God or don't. 

It's like I respond to my boys all the time, "God Himself gives us boundaries to live within.  Within those boundaries He guides us and protects us, if we stay in those boundaries we are not living in sin, if we step outside of those boundaries we are.  We have to trust that following God within the boundaries He has given us is for our good and His glory. So, yes even as adults Mommy and Daddy still have to obey someone."

Sometimes they smile, sometimes they roll their eyes....my prayer is one day it sinks in...so that in those moments when they are fighting their battles, they choose obedience.