I Said So

We are enjoying an afternoon at the beach with the family. It is a nice warm day, so there are many families swimming and having a great time. I hear a conversation near me and it goes a bit like this, "but why daddy?" "Because I am your Father and I said so." Oh, I love to hear those words, it brings a smile to my face every time. There is a parent that gets it, a parent that understands that we all need to learn obedience, a parent that is training their child to honor the authority placed in front of them. Wonderful!

Just a few days before hearing this conversation at the beach, I was talking with a friend of mine that just happens to be a preschool teacher. She has been teaching for many years, not sure how long exactly, but she just became a grandmother. Anyway, she was sharing with me how amazed she is that parents are not teaching their children obedience. Children are telling their parents what to do and what is best, instead of the other way around. This unfamiliarity with obedience is causing problems in the classroom. She has students that simply don't get to participate fully in activities because they can not listen and therefore pose a threat to themselves and others. It is actually very sad. She was sharing with me how much help her classroom parents really need.

I know parents that are like this, they love their children and truly feel they are doing the best for them. However, they are forgetting that we all need to learn obedience. We all need to be obedient in several ways and to several people. We need to obey our employers, the laws of the land, and the rules of our school or community. It is important for all of us to learn to follow direction and listen to authority.

My personal reason for teaching my children to be obedient, is because I desire for them to be obedient to God. He is our Heavenly Father, and when He "says so," I pray thet my children will obey. God loves us more than we can humanly imagine. He places rules and boundaries in our lives to keep us safe and to help us avoid unnecessary heartache and pain, not because He desires to be mean or controlling. We do the same with our children, we love them, so we teach them obedience.

May God bless you as you look at obedience in your family. May He give you strength to model obedience for your children and to say "because I said so," when the situation warrants it.