“OUCH!!!” Valerie looked annoyingly at her son Aaron. “Didn’t I tell you not to touch that?” She scolded him. “Didn’t I just tell you not to touch that because it’s still hot!” “Yes mom.” Aaron said, holding his burned finger. She had been cooking some boneless chicken breasts in the cast-iron skillet, and it was very hot. She had told Aaron not to touch the skillet, but claimed he was just so hungry, that he couldn’t wait.
She didn’t know what had gotten into that child lately. He was eleven years old, and he just didn’t listen. She would give him instructions, but he would go off and do what he wanted to do, get hurt, and then come running back to her. “You know you could save yourself some unnecessary pain, if you would just listen, and follow instructions.” She told him. “Now go into the bathroom, and put some vaseline on that burn.”
Valerie sighed and shook her head as Aaron walked past her. Then a thought entered her head. Maybe it was the Holy Spirit speaking to her. She thought to herself, how much we could save ourselves from unnecessary pain in our Christian walk if we just listened to, and followed God’s instructions, instead of doing what we want, getting hurt, and then go running back to God to help us. She smiled as she remembered the verses in Matthew 7:24-27,
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
As she went to go about Aaron’s burn, she thanked God for reminding her of the importance in being obedient to him, and how we can save ourselves some unnecessary pain, if he just followed God’s Word.
Thought: When we are disobedient to God’s Word, we can find ourselves in difficult situations that we could have avoided, if we had we had just followed God’s direction.