Those Pesky Rules

We are on vacation. And one of the things my little girls looked forward to the most was access to an indoor pool. We don't have a pool or much opportunity to swim at any time of the year, so to get to swim in March is a real treat!

Now, not only is there a pool, there is also a hot tub!

That is like sprinkles on top of the sundae for my girls.

They were very excited. That is until they saw the sign.

They looked at me with that look. The one that says, "Really Mom? Do we really have to obey this goofy rule?"

Me: "Ummm...."  (OK- this is when Mommying is tough. I mean, they have been in hot tubs lots of times. They are well behaved. No one else is in the hot tub. It is sort of a goofy rule anyway. And I am more of a spirit-of-the-law than a letter-of-the-law sort of girl anyway. But on the other hand, what would I be teaching my girls? To only obey the rules they agree with? To ignore the rules they don't like when no one is around to see them?......See what I mean? Parenting in not for cowards.)

So after mulling the rule question around and all the dire consequences that could lead to the eventual juvenile delinquency of my children, I said, "We need to obey the rule. We don't have to agree with it to obey it." (Thought I would throw in a little object lesson while I was at it.)

But I did relent enough to let them sit on the side and put their feet in.

After a while my husband looked over at my daughter who now had her entire leg in the water. She had just sort of inched in little by little. Clever girl.  He said, "You are getting as much of yourself in the water as you can without officially getting in, aren't you?"

Shazam!
Brain Flash!
Spiritual Application!
Conviction!


When God puts constraints in my life....when He says "No" to something I want....when He constructs fences to keep me in or to keep something out....when He does that, how do I respond?

Do I complain?
Do I try to figure my way around the constraint?
Do I half-heartedly obey, and then squirm my way as close as possible to what I want?

And those questions all boil down to one, really simple question:

Do I trust Him?

Do I trust Him enough to accept the:

• not now
• not for you
• not allowed
• you need to avoid this
• DON'T!

Because if I don't trust Him, I will balk. I will try to figure my way around the thing. I will inch my way into the very pool that He has told me "No" to.

But if I love Him, I will trust Him. Even when He says no.