blessings or cursings

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.  If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in His ways and by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His rules, then you shall live and multiply and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to take possession of it.  But if your heart turns away and you will not hear but are drawn away by other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish (spiritually and physically prematurely).  You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.  I call heaven and earth to witness against you today (the “natural forces” at work in this world are in agreement and have witnessed their Creator make this covenant with His people and they will operate accordingly) that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.  Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice, and holding fast to Him, for He is your life and length of days that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers…”

Even as a believer, I get to choose life or death, blessings or cursings.  They are not without their consequences.  God desires for each one of us to choose life, not just the eternal life He promises through the covenant blood of His precious son, Jesus, but the abundant life on earth, which is not defined as the world defines abundance, for what are riches without fellowship with God which is forfeited in the absence of obedience.  And that obedience which is pleasing to God is a natural response to the love He freely gives us.  It is born out of love and fellowship with the All Sufficient Father.  I Want to Obey, I Get to Obey, my Father wants good things for me, I just need to trust His directions and follow them…hmmm, I think what I am witnessing in Aidan’s (6 yrs old) behavior is a picture of what resisting God looks like.  When I give him a direction or request, “please throw this away” or “clean up your room” I get defiance and a tantrum.  He doesn’t want to do it.  He doesn’t feel he needs to help out around the home on a consistent basis, just when it’s convenient for him.  He doesn’t want to clean up, although I am asking him to do it for his own benefit.  I believe it will help him to function better in a more orderly space and it is pleasing to me to have his room neat.  I tell him to go to bed at a certain time because I know he needs his sleep so that he will both have time to grow and not be cranky the next day.  He doesn’t want to go to sleep and throws a fit.  I tell him to go to the bathroom when I know he needs to pee.  He resists and gets angry with me for suggesting such a thing, then has an accident.  I can go on and on with the parallels between these two relationships.  The difference, of course, is that I am an imperfect parent and God is perfect in all His ways always.  How much more so can I lean on and trust my Abba in His directions for my life and enjoy His warm, non-judgmental, all encompassing embrace, no matter how I’ve blown it.