Obeying When You Don’t Want To

This week I opened up my mailbox and found TWO coupons to my favorite store.  TWO!  I could hardly believe my eyes!  One was for 20% off and the other was $10 off.  “Wow!” I thought.  “This is the perfect chance to buy new tennis shoes!”  Seriously, mine are in awful shape. Then I glanced at the address.  The $10 off coupon was not addressed to me – it was addressed to the house one street over.  Oh, man.  Ethical dilemma.  Do I pretend I never saw the address and use it toward my much needed shoes?  Or do I take the coupon and put it in it’s rightful box?  I discussed it with a friend of mine.  Then I decided, if I had to think about it, then I already had my answer.  I should give the coupon to it’s rightful owner.  God requires honesty, and that was the honest, obedient thing to do.  But, man!  I SO did not want to.

So we were headed out of the house this morning and I asked my son to put his shoes on.  I was specific on which ones (red crocs) and where they were (by the door).  But he went and picked out a completely different pair from the closet.  Now, honestly wearing a different pair of shoes is not that big a deal. But since I had asked him to do a specific thing, I felt that he should obey specifically.  To me it was more of a teaching moment than a fashion intervention.  I asked him again to put on his red crocs.  “I don’t want to wear those!” he whined.  (He normally loves them.) “I asked you to put those shoes on, and you need to obey.  Sometimes I give you a choice of which shoes you want to wear and sometimes I do not.  Today I am not giving you a choice in shoes. But you need to choose to obey.” He started to cry. I told him what his consequence would be for not obeying.  And he obeyed. “I’m proud of you for choosing to obey.” I said before we pulled out of the driveway.  “It’s not easy to obey when we don’t want to, is it? But God tells us to obey Him even when we don’t want to because He loves us.  That’s why you have to obey Mommy even when you don’t feel like it too.”

Now the funny thing is, we were literally headed directly out to return the coupon.  I smiled to myself.  I think God wanted both me and my son to learn a similar lesson on the same day.  I think He wanted to reinforce that He wants us to obey – even in the small things (like red crocs or coupons), and even if we don’t want to.  Because that’s what obedience  really is anyways, right?  I hope that someday if my son gets someone else’s $10 off coupon to his favorite store when he really, really could use it, then he’ll remember his red crocs and do what’s right even if he doesn’t want to.

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