Christmas Candle Scripture 7 – Obedience

Colossians 3:20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

This one is interesting to me. Obedience to your parents is a good thing if your parents are good people, but if your parents are teaching you to do bad things or are just bad examples, I think God would be okay with you not obeying them, but only when what they are trying to get you to do is in opposition with what God would have you do.

Thankfully, I had good parents. They taught me a lot of good things. Not that I always listened, but I think they did a good job. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without their guidance and counsel. Sometimes it was hard obeying my parents, but they were trying really hard to bring me up in a way where I would be growing closer to God.

Another part of this scripture, to me, is that we are to obey our Heavenly Parents. God wants us to obey His commandments so that we can return and live with Him again. He doesn’t give us instructions and rules to make us miserable or to see how far He can push us until we snap. He gives us the guidelines we need to follow in order to attain the greatest happiness here on this earth. God can only bless us when we make the correct choices, so He tells us what to do in order to receive His blessing. This makes Him happy. God rejoices in our obedience and He finds greater joy in being able to shower blessings upon us. 

I find it interesting when people comment that religion is restrictive. Sure, there are certain things that we are asked not to do, like smoke, drink, have premarital sex, lie, cheat, steal, swear, etc. But if you think about it, each of those things is for our protection, whether it be mental, emotional or physical. Each rule God gives us is to ensure our best chance of happiness, not hold us back from having fun. And if we have good parents, they teach us that. Unfortunately, not everyone has good parents. Sometimes parents don’t care for those things and sometimes parents try, but circumstances beyond their control prevent them from fully being able to teach the precepts they wish to instill in their children. So, those of us in positions to affect the lives of children need to step up and be good role models. Even if we don’t actually teach someone about God and His commandments, we can still teach by following the commandments ourselves and being an example.

Obedience to God’s commandments can bring great happiness into our lives. When we have good parents and obey what they are teaching us along with following what God wants us to do, we demonstrate the love, respect and faith we have in the Lord. Obedience to God’s commandments shows our love and respect for Him. Not that we HAVE to be perfect. That’s not possible. But as long as we are trying, that is what counts.