“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 7:21

Remember how heartbroken you were when you were a little kid and you didn’t do as your parent(s) asked and you disappointed them?

I remember the first time that I really upset my mom. She was angry and exasperated and frustrated, God love her heart, and I was HEARTBROKEN.

As a toddler, I was the female version of Charlie Brown. I had a large head, for a little girl (praise God I grew into it, lol) and worse than that…I was almost bald, until I was about three. My mom made most of my clothes, even my outer wear. She would make coats with matching hats and little muffs for my hands and the reason that she did that was because it was the only way to cover my bald head and still allow people to know that I was a little girl.

So, once I got hair (between the ages of 3 & 4) my mom decided that if she permed it then it would look fuller and like I had more hair. So, she worked for a long time putting those tiny little curlers in my hair (some of them would pop out when she tried to hook them and they would snap her finger like a rubber band and she would wince or curse) and then she put that really, really stinky setting lotion on it and then she timed it and rinsed it back off. The whole process seemed to be one big nuisance. Once she was finished she said “okay, now go play and I will call you when it is time to take them out.” I protested, but she said “Do As I Say”. So, I went off to play. But it wasn’t long before I thought about how hard my mom had worked on putting those curlers in my hair. And I thought, “how nice would it be if I helped her and took them out so she didn’t have to do all that work again”. I sincerely thought that she would be so pleased with me for helping her. So, out all those tiny curlers came. Except the ones that I got tangled and couldn’t get out.

Needless to say, my mom was incredibly unhappy, because I had undone all the work that she had done and my hair looked worse now than before. It wasn’t curly and full the way she had hoped, instead it was just frizzy and thin and awful! She cried and I cried and I am still not sure which one of us was more heartbroken. Oh how I wished that I had listened.

Then there are the memories of my dad. I consider myself to have been a pretty good child, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but all in all pretty good. I remember my dad doing and saying things that I would mimic and he would say “you don’t say that” or “you don’t do that” and I would say “but you did”. His response was always “Do As I Say, not as I do”.

Unfortunately, that “Do As I Say, not as I do” method of teaching doesn’t really work. I am proof of that, because as I got older, instead of doing as he said, I did a LOT of the same things that my father had done and it never worked out well for me. Oh, how I wish I had listened.

There are tons of verses that instruct us to follow God’s direction and his word. They remind us that His ways are best and they will prosper, benefit, help and teach us.

In the book of Psalms King David writes to God – “With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory.” – Psalm 73:24; “Your testimonies also are my delight; They are my counselors” – Psalm 119:24; He knew (after having learned the hard way, by making serious mistakes like the rest of us) that God’s ways and counsel were best and for his own good. In Matthew we read “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” – Matthew 6:33. And in Deuteronomy God tells us “You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.” Deuteronomy 13:4;

Our Heavenly Father took the time to to breath His word into existence, to teach, reproof and train us in righteousness (“All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Greater than the heartbreak that we experienced as children when we disappointed our earthly parents should be the heartbreak we experience when we disregard our Heavenly Father’s teaching.

Our Heavenly Father’s teachings say Do As I Say and it will go well with you and all of your descendants, (“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). Why on earth would we not do what He asks. Add in the fact that His one and only Son died for our forgiveness so that we could be called sons and daughters of God and we should be so filled with gratitude and a desire to please Him that should be following His instruction/direction perfectly (or as close to perfect as we possibly can).

I pray that today we would desire to please, honor, glorify and follow after God, like never before. That we would understand more fully than ever that those things that God asks of us, in his word, he asks so that we would know the freedom of the bondage that is sin. That we would understand the lengths that He has gone to keep us free from that bondage, the lengths that He has gone to loose those chains (of sin) that bound us. And, that our gratitude would cause us to be more in love with Him than ever before.

If you do not know the freedom and forgiveness that is Jesus Christ, I pray that you would go to our Life Preserver page and pray the prayer that is outlined there. Once you have done that I pray that you would reach out to me at admin@Forgiven-N-Loved.com and allow me to pray for you and perhaps help you grown in your knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Luv Ya