Follow Instructions

My sister Crystal recently asked me how my blog was going.  I told her I was taking a break because 1.) my internet connection at home sucks and it is a pain doing anything online and 2.) I am spending most of my spare time writing my book.  Don’t worry; I am not abandoning this blog!  It has been quite some time so I am going to give a word that has been on my heart for a while.  An issue I often struggle with because I am just so extremely confident in my own abilities to handle life’s issues.  I am sure you may have this issue to.

FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS

I love being a parent.  Hearing the word “Mommy” escape from the lips of my children is the most amazing sound.  Okay, yeah, it can be annoying at times when I am focused on my work and someone wants a snack or someone wants me to read a book or someone just wants attention.  However, that word, coming out of my children’s mouths, makes me feel important, necessary and loved. 

With that said, my children are often calling upon me to help them with pretty much everything.  Assembling toys, completing homework, and building furniture are not my favorite pastimes but I find myself engaged in such activities pretty much daily.  And this, friends and family, is how I complete those tasks in three simple steps. First, I look at it and determine what it is and how the finished product should appear.  Second, I put it together and realize I did it the wrong way.  Third, I look at the instructions and re-do it based on how it is supposed to be done.  Simple right? HA!

Now honestly, how often have you attempted to assemble a piece of furniture or a Christmas gift or assist your child with their “hard math” by just winging it?  And how often do you find that you messed up and had to deconstruct the entire thing and start over?  How much easier would it have been to just read the instructions in the first place and avoid wasting time and energy to do something the wrong way?

The Word of God (The Bible) is life’s instruction manual.  Its pages provide steps to guide us in every aspect of our lives.  From childhood through old age, in relationships, in business, in the way we carry yourselves, God’s Word provides guidance on how to live a life which is pleasing in His sight and will put us in the best position to live a good life. 

Now you may say, “Michelle, you are full of crap.  I have lived my life according to God’s Word for such and such amount of time and my life stinks.”  Well, my answer to that would be, “I feel sorry for you because you obviously have no understanding of God’s Word.”  The essential part of following instructions is to have an understanding of the words.  If I am attempting to build a dollhouse and the instructions are in French, I will not be able to follow the instructions because I don’t understand French language.  The same goes for God’s instructions.  If you read The Bible and you aren’t able to comprehend the words, you need to get the “simple language” version of The Bible (I prefer NIV, NIRV or NLT versions over King James any day) and find yourself a good church home and attend Bible study regularly.   When you fully understand God’s Word and follow His instructions, you set yourself up to win!  Following God’s instruction manual clearly states that it won’t make us immune to hardship and pain but it will help us overcome those obstacles with grace and peace of mind.  There are so many illustrations in the Old Testament of people who were in relationship with God and proclaimed their faithfulness and devotion to Him.  Then somewhere along the way, they became entangled in lives snares and lost focus.  They failed to obtain a full understanding of God’s instruction or they just outright turned away from God.  Their mistakes had severe consequences.  Their stories should serve as examples to us of the consequences of failing to follow God’s instructions.  Learning from their mistakes can help us avoid making bad decisions in life. 

Have we learned anything today?  I hope so!  My prayer is that I stop living life according to the desires of my flesh and start living life according to God’s Word.  I pray that I stop making foolish mistakes that could have been easily avoided had I just used God’s Word to make better decisions.  I pray that I continue to be content with the cards dealt to me and be a mirror image of Christ so that my children will have a positive role model of how God prevails in all circumstances.  I pray that God’s Word reaches your heart and mind and that you are filled with understanding of His Will for your life and that you follow His Will, experiencing the joy that comes with having an intimate relationship with Our Father.  May His Word bless you and keep you all the days of your life.

‘Til next time…