I did not get married until I was 37 and I did not have my first and only child until I was 38, so it took me a while to learn some lessons that can only come once you have children, unless you are a teacher. One of the lessons I learned, is how important it is to me that my son obeys my voice. When He was much younger his obedience was for his safety. I would tell him not to touch this or not to go over there, not because I was keeping something from him, but because I was protecting him from something that would harm him. Then the older he got, the more he learned to not do those things, so now obeying my voice was not as much for physical concerns, but emotional for him or for someone else.

My son is 15 now and we have talks about what I expect and want from him as it pertains to his education, playing his piano, or dating. I have stopped saying don’t touch the stove because it is hot to now saying, this is how we treat a woman and why it is important. I am expecting him to obey me not because I want to be right, but because I don’t want him to hurt someone else and I am praying her parents are doing the same so she does not hurt my son. I know he will do things to disobey me, and those choices will hurt him because my desire for him to obey me is not to control him but to lead him into a successful life as a man, a husband and one day a father.

If I am this passionate about this subject of obedience it is because God is even more passionate about the subject than I am. 2 Kings 18:11-12 says, “Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.” Many adults are living in exile because they do not obey the voice of God. Exile can be financial, spiritual, emotional, and even physical, all because we do not obey what God commands us. It may be a hard pill to swallow, but no matter our age, we will always be children of God and He expects us to obey Him because He loves us and wants to protect us from exile. Obedience is the the key to the abundant life.