Trust and Obey

Raising a 4-year-old boy is full of fun: trucks and dirt and tee ball and cuddles. It is teaching me so much about the depth of love I can possess for another person and gives me a glimpse of the depth of love God has for me.

It is also teaching me to see myself in a new light, giving me an idea what I must look like to God when I get stubborn and disobedient and insist on doing things my way.

Because raising a 4-year-old boy is a constant adventure, as parents we like to plan fun family outings as a surprise for our little guy and his baby sister. This afternoon, when we found out that his tee ball game was cancelled, we decided to load up in the car. Little guy got excited about going somewhere and decided we were going to play putt-putt. Not what we had in mind. My husband wanted to drive out to his family’s farm and run and play and fish in the pond. All things our little guy loves to do!

But instead of being excited about it, he was angry that we didn’t do his plan. After 20 minutes of fir-throwing in the car, we pulled in the driveway of the farm, and he jumped out of the car, ready to look for worms and cast a line in the pond. Once he saw the beauty and the wide open spaces, he was in his element. He knew that we had chosen well and done it out of love for him.

But he had resisted first. He had gotten angry. He had even cried. He had not trusted us and was not willing to obey.

I am reminded in this moment that I struggle in the same way against my Heavenly Father. I know that His way is best and that He loves me, but I struggle sometimes to admit that His way is better. I resist. I get frustrated. Sometimes I even cry. But in the end, when I follow His lead, I recognize the beauty He has laid out in the path ahead of me and I smile.

““For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭55:8-9‬ ‭NIV‬‬