I once knew a little girl who wore her flip flops on the wrong feet. If anyone ever brought it to her attention she would say, "I know. I like my shoes on the wrong feet." I suppose she really must have liked to wear them that was for she seemed quite determined to do so. Her mother wisely made no fuss about it. She knew her child would eventually decide to wear her shoe correctly. Sometimes as parents, we do have to pick our battles.
Mom was right of course. In a short time, my sweet little friend began to wear her flip flops on the correct feet. She grew up and out of this little phase, but I always smile when I think of her that summer. She looked so funny walking through Christian camp with her flip flops on backwards. And we all enjoyed watching her. It was funny to me then and is still amusing to me now.
It does make me think about our lives, though. We are God's children and He loves us so much. I suppose we amuse Him with our antics sometimes. Other times, we probably make Him quite sad with our stubbornness.
Perhaps there are some bad habits- some sins that we are unwilling to give up. Maybe there are some things that we stubbornly cling to that keep us from growing spiritually. I don't think our loving Heavenly Father is so amused with us then. Do we sometimes say, I love You, God; but I really like living this way, do I have to give it up?
Think about that for a second. Imagine telling God, "I like talking about other people. I like to be 'in the know' about what's going on. That's not really gossip is it? Maybe we tell the kids to tell whoever is calling that we are not home because we don't want to talk to them right then. Surely, that's OK right God? Maybe we stayed up too late Saturday night and we think it'll be OK just this one time to sleep a little longer and skip Sunday school. As long as we make it to worship hour, we are still putting God first, right?
What about remembering to pray or study God's word every day? That's one of my weaknesses and something I should work diligently to improve. Oh, I pray pretty regularly; but I don't always spend time in God's word every day. I suppose it hurts the Father when He thinks I might not want to hear from Him on a daily basis.
All of us have areas in which we can improve. We know this. Unlike the little girl who insisted on wearing her sandals on the wrong feet, this is no laughing matter. We should take our obedience to the Father very seriously. We should strive every day to obey the commandments of Jesus so that we can grow closer to Him every day.
Jesus is the best friend we will ever have. God is a perfect Father- THE perfect Father. We really should keep our eyes on Him all the time. We can't say, God I love you -BUT .. I like doing so and so, are you sure I have to give it up? Come on now, we all know that all of us have weaknesses. Christianity should be an on-going process and we should always -- always seek to grow and mature and do better . We are never perfect as Christ was when He was among us; but He is the example we are to follow. His life is the perfect pattern.
So let's grow up and out of our stubborn phase with our God. Let's take off those flip flops and put them on the right feet. Then we can continue to walk that straight and narrow path that leads to heaven!
Christ above all things,
Robin
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