Alright, I’m on my lunch break. I’m filling in with some preschool aged kiddos and had a moment today. One of the boys in the class wasn’t behaving and he just couldn’t keep his hands to himself. He kept hitting and pushing his friends, and I don’t play that! So, I made him hold my hand. Of course, he didn’t want to and had no intention on giving in to my request. We’d gotten to the bottom of the stairs, ready to go up (the classroom is upstairs and we had just finished lunch) and I stopped. I stopped because he kept tugging at my hand to get away from me. I stopped because, had I tried to begin walking up the stairs WITH him, he would have continued to pull away and may have fallen or made me fall. I stopped because, had I let him go up the stairs alone, he might have pushed a friend or three out of the way to get to the top first.
As we stopped, I said, “I told you that you’d have to hold my hand if you didn’t behave.”
Him: No! I don’t want to!
Me: Are you ready to go upstairs???
Him: Yes, I’m ready.
Me: Then why are you fighting me???
If he would have just listened to me an done what I instructed him to do, he wouldn’t have been in this predicament. Had he kept his hands to himself, like I’d asked a number of times; had he just walked down the hallway instead of run, we wouldn’t have had the issues we were having. If he would have just DONE WHAT I SAID………
Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks! How many times and in how many situations do we think we are ready to be done or ready to “go up”, and we fight the God who is trying to help us get to our destination??? How do we fight Him??? Well, we refuse to follow the instructions that He gives us. We don’t like how He “suggests” that we do things so, sometimes (SOMETIMES), we decide that we’ll try to reason with Him. Sometimes we “argue” with Him about how uncomfortable it will or is making us. Sometimes, we decide that we’ll pretend we didn’t hear Him or didn’t “think” that it was actually Him telling us to do such a thing. You know…like a child, we don’t like being told what to do. “Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.” (Psalms 50:17) The same scripture in the New Living Translation (NLT) says, “For you refuse my discipline and treat my words like trash.” God gives us a fool proof plan or instructions, every time…..EVERY TIME, to help us reach our goals, destinations, and fulfill our purpose. He does, however, leave it up to us to follow through with it. Proverbs 8:33 says, “Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.” Basically, FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS! That simple. Now, I know that sometimes the instructions don’t seem feasible and may seem difficult for us to rationalize how they will get us where we are going, but they are carefully planned and detailed, by God, for our good. The NLT says, “Listen to my instruction and be wise. Don’t ignore it.” The scripture tell us to be wise. You know what the opposite of wise is? FOOLISH! Don’t be foolish and ignore the instructions that the Lord gives you.
Often, we feel that we are at a stand still…..stuck….stagnant, because we can see our finish line, but we can’t quite get to it. There are times when God just wants us to be still and wait; and there are times when WE are the reason that there is no movement in our lives. We refuse to follow directions. We refuse to listen to His voice. We refuse to hold His hand. We refuse to let Him walk us up those “stairs”. Why ignore the one with the directions? Why ignore the ONE who IS the direction? When you are driving to an unfamiliar place, you probably use your GPS. I’m sure you don’t get to the middle of “nowheresville” and decide that you can “take it from here.” NO! You keep listening until you get where you are going. You follow instructions….directions. So, why then, do we ignore the voice of the Lord when we KNOW that He has ALL the answers???; when we KNOW that He IS THE ANSWER??? “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27 NLT)
My point……stop fighting the direction giver and FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS! Please, you’ll get there faster than you think. 😉
Gotta go (for now). I’ll probably have something else later.
Love y’all!
Ms. A.M.White
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