If you’ve had a two-year-old in the family, you know that the heart of man is prone to disobedience.
“Don’t ride your big wheel in the street,” my husband said to my son.
“But I want to,” replied the two-year-old.
“You may not,” answered the voice of authority.
“I’m gonna,” was the reply as he sailed off on his big wheel across the street.
We laugh about this story, which is a family favorite, and we laughed at the time, even though justice was meted out in such a way as to teach our son to be wise in the future.
(No, that’s not my son in the two-year-old picture above, but my grandson Judah at age two.)
But the thing that I want to bring to our attention is not that our young children need to be taught to obey, but that we grown ups must be taught to obey as well. All the time.
Think about the children of Israel as they followed Moses into the wilderness. God provided manna for them to eat, but gave very specific instructions, kind of like, “You may not ride in the street.” And they replied, “I’m gonna.” Read More