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The Fear of the Lord

My 3-year-old got into trouble last night while getting ready for bed.  We had read our Bible story and were saying our usual prayer.  “God bless our family, God bless our friends too, thank you for loving me and I love you.”  Usually we break it up into four little sections and I let my 3-year-old say every other line. 

So, last night, after I had said “God bless our family,” she said

“God flijula…” 

I said, “No, it doesn’t work that way, when we are praying, we have to show God respect.  We can love God and have fun with God, but when we are praying, we don’t want to joke around like that.”  So I started again, “God bless our family,”

She responded with “flimjenica.”  I got up out of the bed and told her that I wasn’t going to finish the bedtime routine if she didn’t respect God.  It wasn’t nice when we are taking time to talk to God to be rude like that.  I gave her one more chance.  I told her this was our time that we get to say thank you to God and pray for our friends and family.  She did it, but begrudginingly. 

This morning when I opened my bible it was opened to Psalm 25:14 “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”  How often do we disrespect God?  How often does he do something for us and we just brush it off and say, “yeah, I pretty much rock”?  How often do we take His blessings and brush them off.  Do we fear the Lord? 

There are a few things that I have a fear of that are inanimate: the stove; the oven; chemicals in general; cars; basically anything that could genuinely hurt me or my children.  I “fear” those things.  Although they are amazing appliances that allow us to do so much, I know that if used improperly, I could truly get injured and hurt.  I have a healthy fear and make sure to instill a healthy fear of these items into my children so that they know that the could be hurt by them. 

Fear doesn’t always mean debilitating freezing, it doesn’t always mean that we have to cower when we see things.  Fear of things often times helps us to gain respect for things.  Do you “fear” loosing your job?  Therefore, you have a respect for your job and those over you that you show.  For God, I think that we need to understand that He is an AWESOME God.  He took down full armies and drives out demons.  He parted the seas and makes those with disabilities not have them anymore.  It is awesome!

I love my kids, but I want them to “fear” what will happen when they break rules.  They “fear” time out or being sent to their rooms.  That fear teaches them the right ways in life.  To show that they love me, they need to respect me, to follow instructions of parents.  If I look to my Heavenly Father and know that all these things can happen, I have a choice to make.  I can choose to show my love to God by respecting His ways and following His commands, or I can choose to ignore him, and suffer the consequences. 

I want to be one that the LORD confides in, who He makes his covenant know to.  I don’t want to be just someone who believes in the Lord, I want to be one that loves, fears, and follows.  I don’t want my following to be out of fear, but I want it to be out of respect and out of love.  I want it to be because of the love that He has shown to us.  How about you?

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