HOUSE RULES (PART 3)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord.

Colossians 3:20 NLT

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Some may view the Bible as only applicable to adults but anyone who believes this hasn’t really studied the scriptures. For within the Bible, we do find important guidance that speaks to kids.

As we look at today’s verse from Colossians 3, the verse that serves as the foundation for this third message in the “House Rules” series, we find ten key words that should be shared with ever child. Here they are:

Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord (3:20 NLT).

Within this verse, we find two critical teaching points for parents as they raise their children.

First, is the matter of obedience.

To properly understand what God’s word means when it talks about obedience, we can look to any common dictionary. When we do, here’s what we find:

“Compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another's authority”.

In every house, there are rules that are established by parents who expect their kids to comply with said rules.

When children are very little, these rules are usually around not touching things or putting things in the mouth (Don’t small children like to try and taste or eat anything?).

Now, one might say that children within their first two years don’t understand what obedience is but I would submit to you that they do as soon as they understand the difference between doing right and wrong.

For example, I distinctly remember my oldest daughter back in the early eighties when she was in a walker. She liked to roll around the living room and try and grab things off of the low sitting tables. When she did, we would take the item from her, put in back on the table, and of course offer the order, “No”.

Now, this went on for a little while as we were trying to teach her what she should and shouldn’t do but one day, I saw something very different happen. My daughter rolled up to the table but before she grabbed what she was told not to, she looked over at me to see if I was watching her. And even though she could see I was, she still grabbed the item she had been told many times not to.

It was at that point that I realized my little toddler knew and understood what was right and wrong...and chose disobedience over compliance.

This tells you that teaching obedience starts early and continues through that time when your children become adults and go off to live their lives, hopefully obedient to other authority. Parents must be persistent and show great perseverance in always stressing the importance of their children’s complete and uncompromising obedience of their children to everything they are asked to do and not do.

Well, as kids love to do, a parent may get the question, “Why?” to the demand for obedience and that’s why the second part of this verse is so important. For there we find the answer to the “Why?” question.

“...for this pleases the Lord.”

As we are teaching our kids about right and wrong through obedience instruction, we need to always include the primary reason we’re doing so. For any behavior, no matter our age, should always be considered through the lens of God’s sight before carried out. If the action one is thinking about is unpleasing to the Lord, then it shouldn’t be done and that goes for any thought, word, or deed.

In the context of this verse and today’s message, the scriptures are commanding children to always be obedient to their parents because it is pleasing to the Lord. That’s what really matters.

From the earliest point of understanding right and wrong, fathers and mothers need to be talking about pleasing the Lord. Start early and consistently share that message and it will take root inside your kids so they not only can use it through their childhood development but later as they become adults and possible have children of their own, children that they too can raise up knowing the importance of obedience and how it pleases the Lord they serve.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com