Saturday, February 27, 2010

Authority & Submission - Part 2

There is great freedom & blessing that comes from being under authority. We don't have to have the stress of trying to be in charge and make life work when we don't really have the capacity and ability to do so.

I look at my daughter Hope, a three year old who in many ways wishes she was 30 and tries to act like it too. She longs to be the one in charge, the mommy and the authority. One day, with the proper training, she will make an amazing mommy and grown woman of faith. However, she is not equipped yet to carry that weight. And every time she tries to be the one in charge of her own life and other's, she strives and stresses herself out. She lacks peace and joy, and she gets easily frustrated and conflicted.

Well, God somehow saw fit that I would have this child who would take awhile and some serious consistency to bring under submission to authority, so Hope has spent much of her life so far striving and trying to be her own boss. Dozens of times each day I have to remind her to ask permission to do things before she does them, and to speak to me in a way that is honoring and asking, not demanding. She still hasn't quite gotten it, but there are those moments when she gets it, and I see such a peace and joy within her as I have been able to take the weight off her shoulders of having to be the one in charge.

Part of her realizes she is too little and too naive to be the one in charge. Her spirit knows that she is much safer letting me be in charge. Yet her flesh rages and fights her all the time wanting to be the one calling all the shots.



There is great freedom in not needing to always have our own way.

We don't know what to do so much of the time.

We don't know how to keep from sinning. But as we submit to God's authority in our lives, we find what we need.

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