Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. -Deuteronomy 12:28
The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures. -Psalm 30:17
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. -Ezekiel 36:27
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. -John 3:36
And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. -Acts 5:32
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. -1 John 5:2
We have really hit some challenging behavior with Jeremiah. It seems I spend the whole day correcting disrespectful and negative behavior. That first moment when my sweet little boy ran to his room, slammed his door, and yelled "JUST BE QUIET!" hit me like a ton of bricks. The knowledge of the sin in my child's heart caused me to sit on the floor and cry.
Aaron and I are not very strict parents in the traditional way. We think more about correcting the underlying emotions and reasons for behavior rather than just focusing on good outward behavior. This is not always easy since concepts of sin, emotions and motivations are a bit of a challenge to a 4 year old mind. But we believe it is worth the investment.
Recently, in an attempt to converse with Jeremiah about why we obey (instead of the flippant, "just be a good boy") I decided to start looking up Bible verses about obedience. Jeremiah has a terrific memory so I thought that memorizing some scripture together would help us both. A simple search of the word obey on ESV online brought up 169 verses! Wow. God is really serious about this obedience stuff. When people in the Old Testament did not obey what God told them really bad things happened. In the New Testament there is an obvious link between belief in Christ and obedience to him and the Holy Spirit. (And I didn't even post any of the verses about wives obeying their husbands.....)
Thinking about obedience is not fun. My sinful and rebellious heart wants to do things my way. My lazyness doesn't even want to consider the discipline and work involved in obeying. The influence of the culture around me discourages moral absolutes and sees obedience as an antiquated tradition. Yet the Bible is clear.
In my search for getting obedience from my child I have been challenged at the lack of obedience in my own life. It seems we have a lot to learn together.
Aaron and I are not very strict parents in the traditional way. We think more about correcting the underlying emotions and reasons for behavior rather than just focusing on good outward behavior. This is not always easy since concepts of sin, emotions and motivations are a bit of a challenge to a 4 year old mind. But we believe it is worth the investment.
Recently, in an attempt to converse with Jeremiah about why we obey (instead of the flippant, "just be a good boy") I decided to start looking up Bible verses about obedience. Jeremiah has a terrific memory so I thought that memorizing some scripture together would help us both. A simple search of the word obey on ESV online brought up 169 verses! Wow. God is really serious about this obedience stuff. When people in the Old Testament did not obey what God told them really bad things happened. In the New Testament there is an obvious link between belief in Christ and obedience to him and the Holy Spirit. (And I didn't even post any of the verses about wives obeying their husbands.....)
Thinking about obedience is not fun. My sinful and rebellious heart wants to do things my way. My lazyness doesn't even want to consider the discipline and work involved in obeying. The influence of the culture around me discourages moral absolutes and sees obedience as an antiquated tradition. Yet the Bible is clear.
In my search for getting obedience from my child I have been challenged at the lack of obedience in my own life. It seems we have a lot to learn together.
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