A Loving Eye
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." Psalms 32:8 NIV
When I was a kid I never really understood that my parents were always looking after me. We lived in a neighborhood that had a wooded area behind it. We simply called it “the woods.” When we were old enough to be home alone, my parents would instruct my brother and I to say out of the woods while they were gone. I can remember disregarding their direction one day. Shortly after mom got home, my brother and I got called inside. Mom asked us if we had gone into the woods that day. We thought we could get away with it and told her we had not. She knew better and we got ourselves in trouble for disregarding their instructions and for not telling the truth.
I can remember wondering how she knew. I guess my brother could have snitched, but I doubted it. Later we learned that a neighbor saw us going into the woods and told our parents. While it didn’t feel like it at the time, my parents' loving eye was on me through our neighbors.
I should have listened to my parents and stayed out of the woods. I should have decided to tell the truth rather than deceive my parents. If my parents didn’t have a great relationship with the neighbor, my brother and I may have gotten away with it. But, because they did, it provided a valuable lesson to both of us.
God wants the best for us and wants us to learn from our mistakes. He wants us to seek him before we take action. He is poised to instruct and teach us. That lesson can be gentle and through His word or difficult and through our own mistakes. We get to choose.
Be blessed and be a blessing,
Matt
When I was a kid I never really understood that my parents were always looking after me. We lived in a neighborhood that had a wooded area behind it. We simply called it “the woods.” When we were old enough to be home alone, my parents would instruct my brother and I to say out of the woods while they were gone. I can remember disregarding their direction one day. Shortly after mom got home, my brother and I got called inside. Mom asked us if we had gone into the woods that day. We thought we could get away with it and told her we had not. She knew better and we got ourselves in trouble for disregarding their instructions and for not telling the truth.
I can remember wondering how she knew. I guess my brother could have snitched, but I doubted it. Later we learned that a neighbor saw us going into the woods and told our parents. While it didn’t feel like it at the time, my parents' loving eye was on me through our neighbors.
I should have listened to my parents and stayed out of the woods. I should have decided to tell the truth rather than deceive my parents. If my parents didn’t have a great relationship with the neighbor, my brother and I may have gotten away with it. But, because they did, it provided a valuable lesson to both of us.
God wants the best for us and wants us to learn from our mistakes. He wants us to seek him before we take action. He is poised to instruct and teach us. That lesson can be gentle and through His word or difficult and through our own mistakes. We get to choose.
Be blessed and be a blessing,
Matt
Recent
Archive
2024
No Comments