I think that it is of the utmost importance that a child learns obedience. If he does not know how to obey you might as well forget about the rest. The same is true about us and God, our Father. It's a lesson that He will teach us over and over until we learn it. And then again just to make sure. It boils down to submission: the realization that He knows best. We can knock our heads against the wall again and again but until we finally rest in submission to His will we won't be happy.Submission is the "serene expression of one at perfect peace in the hand of God." (selected) It is not resignation.
It seems to me that obedience is an act and submission is an attitude. One can be obedient without being submissive. But can one be submissive without obedience? It probably goes beyond obedience. Perhaps obedience is a moot point when one is submissive.
I often would tell my children, "Obedience is not obedience unless it's immediate." Otherwise it's on their time table and at their wim as to when and whether they are going to obey. That's not obedience.
1 comment:
Hi Kathy
I like your blog! Hope you keep it up.
I like a comment about obedience that Bruce I. told me he made to his children. "Obedience has its own reward, but it does not give us status."(With God)This helps us understand how sometimes God's grace is very apparently given to a person we might think doesn't deserve it. He doesn't want us to obey Him just for the favor we imagine we will obtain by it.
Pat
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