Numbers 1:54 “Thus the sons of Israel did; according to all which the LORD had commanded Moses, so they did.”

Isn’t that a simple verse? God told Moses to tell the sons of Israel to do something, and they did it. Bam! Done! Obedience. Wouldn’t that had been the easy thing to do? But we know from the rest of the story that the people did not always simply obey. They rebelled and felt the consequences for their disobedience.

Aren’t our children the same? Sometimes we ask them to do something and they just do it. Heck, sometimes they do it without even being told. We are amazed and pleased. Our heart jumps a beat with pride. We think, “I’ve got this parenting thing down! What’s so hard about this?”

But then…little Gertrude rebels. She stomps her little foot and crosses her arms and says, “No! I am not going to bed! I will not clean my room!” All our parenting pride goes out the window. We don’t have a clue what we are doing. Been there? Done that?

May I encourage you today? Take pleasure in those moments of obedience. Mark them down. File that away. Because we know there will be times when our children will buck our directives. That’s okay. Those are teaching moments. Many times we can learn more about ourselves in those difficult times than we will ever teach our kids. We can reflect on how WE stomp our feet and cross our arms at God.

We are just like the Israelites in the dessert. We want our way. Our children want their way. Only by dying to self and teaching our kids to die to the flesh can we have true obedience. Hmmm? Dying to obey! That’s it!