Those who know me, know that I love Mother Teresa. She is my hero. She was obedient in everything—even when she couldn’t feel God’s presence in her life.
That word sounds so restrictive, doesn’t it? Almost archaic even. —Being ‘obedient’. It seems that in this day and age, nobody wants to obey anyone these days. We want what we want and we want it right now. A lot of women are looking for empowerment. Maybe they should look to Mother Teresa instead of JLo. (Sorry, I just had to say it.). What many people don’t understand is that obedience leads to freedom.
The Bible talks about obeying God’s commands. There are 10 commandments (Exodus 20. Grab a Bible. Look it up.). 10 rules of things we are commanded to do. No lying, cheating, stealing, murder or coveting? Just those 10 things? That’s it? There are hundreds/ even thousands of other things we can do if we think about it. Those commandments were put in place for our protection because God loves us so much.
Obedience is an important part of the equation. As children, we learned to obey our parents. They had our best interests at heart. They understood that letting us do whatever we wanted could have been dangerous. We could’ve been hurt or hurt other people. They had a set of rules they wanted us to follow. —Guidelines. And if we didn’t obey, there were consequences!
Listening to your parents helped you to reject bad actions. It taught you respect. It also gave you an easy out to the pressure from friends to do bad things. There was this sense of protection. I’m sure you remember many of those things you did as a kid, those times you got into trouble because you didn’t obey. We’ve all been there, done that.
Being obedient is a way of serving another. Being obedient pleases the other person. And if you can be obedient with a cheerful attitude and not complain, that’s even better! Being obedient can show you why something is right or wrong. It’s good for following instruction. Now I know, today, in this culture, serving another in selfless obedience is almost unheard of. But boy, it sure can make you feel good.
As you get older you appreciate the freedom you receive because of the obedient things you did. Have you ever noticed how your parents honored their parents? What a blessing! Those are your role models.
We can all learn to be more obedient–to God, your spouse, your boss, etc. I created this obedience worksheet to help you improve in this area.
One of my favorite church songs I learned as a child was about obedience. It still brings a smile to my face when I think about it. Be careful though, it tends to stick with you the rest of the day. The refrain goes, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
—God bless, Barb
