When I was in high school, I once disobeyed my father because I had made a commitment that I didn't want to break. I had given someone my word and I felt very strongly that if I were to break my commitment then it would mean that I could not be trusted. So I disobeyed my father.
He had grounded me and I'm not even sure what for. One of the things that bugged me was that he knew that I had made a commitment and even had given his ok. Even so, he proceeded to ground me, which I deserved, but I didn't understand why he was asking me to break my commitment. So on the day that I was to be grounded, I was instructed to come straight home from school. The thing I had committed to wasn't for a few hours later, so I actually stayed at school and waited until I was needed.
When I got home later that evening, you could believe that my father was upset - and rightfully so. We had a decent discussion about this, and I'm not even sure what the compounding punishment became, but there was something that he told me that stuck with me. He told me that even while he had grounded me, he was still going to allow me to make my commitment. It puzzled me as to why he couldn't have just mentioned that in the first place.
I never asked him about that. I should have, but I never did. It took me about 15 years to understand the lesson that my father was trying to teach me.
You see, after I had been disobedient, my father grounded me, but is was as if his method of punishment was allowing me to redeem myself. Had I come home after school, all would have been well. When I didn't come home, it showed a complete lack of trust and obedience on my part.
Now I'm reminded about God and how we are instructed about matters of obedience. How many times have I disobeyed God? How many times has He given me a second chance? And how many times have I squandered that second chance?
Sometimes, we think that the punishment for our actions is unfair. We fail to see that the consequences that we face are often times chances at redemption. So instead of going the way we should, we take our own path, only to find that the road would have been easier if we had just listened to the instructions given to us.
Have you ever done anything like this?
