Honour and obey with your heart, not just your body...

I had a breakthrough with my oldest the other day. It was during another one of those fights that we said we weren't going to have over his guitar practicing (or rather lack thereof and the extremely crappy effort (if you could even call it effort) that he was putting forth).

I was desperately trying not to loose my marbles and give up altogether on this music thing with him. It literally was going on for close to 2 hours! In the background I could hear the other kids screaming and hubby loosing it with them as I had it out with my oldest. I knew that if I gave up, we'd be back at this on the next practice and it would probably be even worse.

Then came the sentence: "I need you to honour and obey with your heart, not just your body". Lightbulb moment! That was the problem. His view was that he just needed to 'suck it up and just do it' and survive till the end of the year that was required of him. He would have his body practice, all the while his heart was far from it- which is why we were fighting over this. He wasn't working as unto the Lord giving a whole-hearted effort- it was more like 10%, and it showed.

Now, some of you might be going, 'well, duh! wasn't that obvious?' Well, yes and no. On the one hand, I remembered a story* about that from when I was younger and it suddenly all made sense. Yet on the other hand, it was a divine revelation that God gave 'in that Kairos moment'- that suddenly brought it to life and gave it power that my previous understanding of that truth couldn't comprehend until that moment. It's like going to watch a fireworks display- you know when you hear the 'pop' that the burst will shortly follow, but what you don't know/comprehend until the moment is what it is going to look like. THEN, you have the oh, ah, moment. Does that make sense?

In that one moment, I finally realized how I could explain this to the kids- because this heart obedience is the issue for all of us, not just my oldest when it comes to the guitar practicing. This is where God looks for our obedience- not in the outward performance of things, but the heart attitude that we had. That is how we can have joy in all circumstances and give 110% when nobody else is looking and the job is horrible.

Now having said that, I'm examining my own life right now and how that fits in with me. There are a few things that I've been doing lately that have begun to feel more like burdens than opportunities for joyous service. So, needless to say- my heart attitude has sucked! But like I keep telling the kids, no matter what happens to you- you still have to CHOOSE your attitude/response. Nobody can MAKE you DO anything, it's always a choice. But I digress.

I've been really working this through with the kids- in their chores, school work, and just general obedience, and let me tell you, there have been some REALLY good moments that have come out of it. For the most part, guitar practicing has taken on a whole new tone (ha, ha- both literally and figuratively)- and so has some of the school work. We still have our moments, but now I have a new 'mantra' of sorts- and I'm sticking with it until God gives me a new one!

* The general gist of the story I mentioned was a tale of a parent disciplining a child. His punishment was to sit down in a chair for a period of time. As he sat down the child replies, "I may be sitting on the outside, but I'm standing on the inside".