I work at a home daycare where I help raise 9 precious children. Simultaneously exhausting and refreshing, it is such a blessing in my life. Watching children grow is one of the purest, simplest forms of beauty these eyes have seen. To see an infant's smile, a child's first steps, first words, a giving heart, a hug to their friend in need, trying lemons for the first time, finally peeing in the toilet instead of their pants; it's all beautiful. God knew what He was doing when He formed these beauties in their mommy's wombs. I don't know if y'all know this, but God is hilarious. If you don't believe me, just come spend a day at our daycare. You wouldn't believe the kinds of things I have to say in an average day:

     "Don't wipe your nose on my hair again."

     "Get your hand out of your friend's mouth."
     "Please don't chew on my phone anymore."
     "Is that water or urine?”

     The amount of joy that comes with loving and being loved by a child is almost overwhelming. Now, don’t get me wrong; kids are quite the handful. A disobedient spirit has proved to be like a contagious virus. When one child has it, everyone seems to catch it. I guess it’s a part of the constant testing of their boundaries. They like to know who’s in charge and they find a strange sense of security in knowing. Their obedience, many times, is dependent on their understanding that we want the absolute best for them.

     The Lord has used my job on so many occasions to turn seemingly insignificant happenings into deep, meaningful parallels and life-lessons. I was recently reflecting on obedience and was struck with such a fresh view of how it should operate within us. Many times, when a new child is enrolled in our daycare, they have not yet been taught about not running away from the adult in charge when we are out in public. They quickly learn. We teach them how dangerous it could be if we are in a parking lot, a crowded place, or by a street. They begin to understand that it is for their safety that they should obey. They eventually get to a place where they don’t even ask “why?” when told to stay by our side. They know. It’s the same with the rules about hitting, speaking in an ugly tone, or throwing things in the house. Every rule has a purpose, and once they understand the purpose for the rule, they no longer question. They also understand that the beloved time-out chair awaits them if they choose to have a disobedient heart.

     I think God’s rules for us are for the exact same reasons. Each one is protecting us from something, protecting others from something, or is a means of helping us to wait for greater things that He has for us that we would have otherwise forfeited. God is Love. His heart for us is good. He is by no means a dictator trying to hold His power over us and withhold things from us. His discipline is to help us grow in obedience and to learn from our mistakes, not to condemn us. If I let one of my kids (yeah, yeah, they aren’t really mine but I love them as if they were!) continue to hit her friends, I would be both a bad protector of her friends and I would be doing her the disfavor of allowing her to grow up imprisoned to habitual anger manifesting itself in violence. God’s goal is to free us from all the destructive patterns of sin, thus opening us up to be able to participate in all of His life-giving plans.

     To be perfectly candid, sometimes, I genuinely don’t feel like changing a poopy diaper for the 10^th time that day. Sometimes, I genuinely don’t feel like walking nine kids to the park in the scorching hot Texas summer. Sometimes, I genuinely don’t feel like cleaning up the spit up, setting out the nap mats again, only to put them up a few hours later, helping to clean up the ocean of toys covering the entire playroom floor, getting up early to go take care of them, telling them the same thing for the millionth time. So what drives me to do it? Plain and simple. I love them. My love for them drives me to do all those things without anyone telling me to. Many times, there is no benefit for me, but the simple fact that I love them and that I know it will benefit them drives me to willingly do it. Once we enter a place where our love for God drives our obedience, it won’t seem so difficult, inconvenient or intrusive anymore. Knowing that it pleases Him will be reason enough to do it and reason enough to push past the fact that we genuinely don’t “feel” like doing it. If we are only following a list of rules with complete detachment relationally from God, we are robbing ourselves of the opportunity to fall in love with Him.

     As I increase the time I spend with Christ, my understanding of Him grows. As my understanding grows, my love for Him grows. And as my love for Him grows, my desire to obey grows. And as my desire to obey grows, the amount of time I spend with Him grows, and I have entered the wonderfully, excitingly, perfectly incredible cycle of walking with Christ.