So one time, when I was young and foolish, I went somewhere I shouldn’t have with someone I shouldn’t have been with. (Got all that?) I also stayed way too long. This was back before everyone walked around with a cell phone in his or her pocket, so when my conscience started to sting a little bit and I decided it would be best if I let my parents know where I was, I found a landline phone. I dialed my parents’ number, and I will never forget hearing the sound of my daddy’s voice on the other end. I mean, I liked to think I was grown and rational and Miss Independent, but I wasn’t so grown that my daddy couldn’t inspire a little fear and trembling.
I stuttered out the details of where I was and who was with me, and finally Daddy spoke: “Don’t you think you need to come home?”
“Daddy,” I replied, “it’s fine. We’re not doing anything wrong.” It wasn’t my finest hour in terms of accepting responsibility, especially since I wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. But to his credit, Daddy didn’t lose his ever-livin’ mind. Instead, he said, “You know, I think you need to come on home. It doesn’t look good for you to be there, and I don’t think you’re setting a great example for younger girls who might look up to you.”
“Oh, they don’t know I’m here,” I answered. And yes, I was totally missing the point. That’s because deep down I was so blasé about the whole thing that I probably shook my hair and applied a fresh coat of mascara when I said it.
“You need to come on home,” Daddy said. “You don’t have any business there. So come home.”
I could hear the edge in his voice, so I did what he asked and went home. But I remember driving down the highway and thinking that he was being so old-fashioned. I wasn’t doing anything to get in any trouble and really, why was being at that person’s house even a big deal? PARENTS ARE SO OVERPROTECTIVE.
No doubt that was just the tip of my disobedient iceberg, but it was years before I saw that particular incident through a different lens. When I finally did (and it was probably ten or fifteen years later), it was like one aha moment after another.
Here. I will share a few of them:
- My daddy loved the Lord and loved me. He was my covering, and every single time I disobeyed and stepped out from under his covering, I put myself at risk.
- I should have absolutely been mindful of how younger girls might view my actions. There’s great responsibility that accompanies influence in someone’s life.
- Consistent disobedience in the little things is like dress rehearsal for disobeying in bigger and more serious ways. The more you practice, the better you get.
- Daddy was one hundred percent right. I was one hundred percent wrong.
- I disregarded my earthly father just like I can be tempted to disregard my heavenly Father. Daddy’s rules weren’t dumb. My insistence on making my own rules, however . . . well, that was dumb.
We all like to think we know best. But we’ll never know best until we’re willing to submit to loving authority (sometimes that’s in the form of a parent, sometimes a mentor, and sometimes Scripture). What a gift to be loved when we’re stubborn or slow to learn a lesson. Thank the Lord for loving, gracious authority today. It is such a gift!
1. Can you think of a time when you’ve known an authority figure was right but you insisted on defying him or her? How’d that work out for you?
2. Is willful rebellion an issue in your life? Or do you tend to be more of a rule follower?
3. What do our relationships with authorities on earth often reveal to us about the state of our hearts? What do they show us about our relationship with our Father in heaven?
4. Read Proverbs 29:23. Write, doodle, or illustrate it here.
Today’s Prayer