3 Legged Race

Summer is right around the corner.  Kids are ready.  Teachers are ready.   My youngest daughter last week told me she could just feel summer.  I asked her what it felt like and she said “Sleeping late and then coming to get in bed with you.” I cherished her simplicity and gave her a big high five!

I honestly feel a bit anxious about summer though.  Just like when the school year begins, it takes us some time around here to adjust.   We whine when we are forced to live under the rule of a strict schedule, but when summer first hits and there is no schedule, we moan and groan too until we figure it out. Nothing happens naturally or effortless with my family. 

To prepare for our summer fun, we have had a crash course in obedience.  Nobody signed up and asked to attend the various sessions.  Attendance has been mandatory and there is an objective.

Since my kids have been big enough to buckle up, my Suburban has been on the move and typically operating at maximum capacity.   I like it!  I am accustomed to being the only adult, and even if most of my passengers at this point are bigger than me, I am still the adult and the one in charge.

Reality hit me last week that we were all about to be home together, and that I better make sure everyone still understood I was in charge.  I cannot and will not take my crew anywhere to do anything unless they are willing to obey me.   I expect them to stay in line 99% of the time and to follow my instructions, or we will just stay home and do nothing. 

About the time I finished one of my speeches and dished out a consequence to a rowdy Monico, I felt like the LORD said to me “Back to you, Sister, we have something in common. I want you to obey.  You want them to obey.”

 The LORD shares my desire for obedient children.    He wants HIS children to obey Him too. 

Jesus Christ wants obedience because He has places to take his children and things to do with them.  If we are obedient, we are able to join Him working for the Kingdom.  The way I feel must be the way He feels!  What an amazing truth. 

I cannot do much with an unruly kid.  Well, God cannot do much with an unruly kid! He still loves us when we are disobedient.  I still love my own children when they are disobedient, but there are consequences.

Obviously, obedience does matter.  How is it possible in this day and age though?   If we stay connected to Jesus Christ daily, we can be obedient!  I mean the joined at the hip kind of connected, like in a three legged race. 

When you sign up for that race, you stand side by side with someone and your inside legs are tied together.  You share a leg and still have one of your own, thus the three legged race.  You no longer move and operate as individuals, but as one. How great would life be if we joined together with Jesus like that?

If one participant runs, the other one has to run too. If one falls, the other one falls.  It is impossible in a three legged race to finish unless you finish together.  Likewise, it is difficult to finish the race called “life” unless you connect yourself to Jesus and do life with Him.   

Luke 11:28 says “Blessed are those who hear God’s word and obey it.”  The questions is:  Will we hear it and will we obey it?  Start today, start now!