Back To Home Page To Archives - Spring of Life - H. Roger Bothwell Reason to Obey Last evening I was in a store watching a little boy play with an object on one of the display counters. The object he was handling was not breakable and he could not damage it but his father came walking by and said, “Don’t touch that.” He then kept on going. The boy looked up and continued playing with the item. His mother than came by and said, “Don’t touch that.” She then kept on going and the boy continued playing with the item. What an interesting event! First of all neither parent ever paused long enough to determine if there request was necessary. It was not. Secondly it was obvious neither parent meant what they said because they walked on by without checking to see if he was obeying. Thirdly he completely ignored their order as if what they said did not matter. Obviously it did not matter. As I looked at the little fellow I found myself feeling sorry for him. If this is a normal pattern and by everyone’s behavior it appeared to be that way, this lad is in trouble. He will never know where the boundaries of safety really are. One of the most important functions of parenting is to use one’s maturity to defend our children from harm by defining for them safe zones. We do this by paying real attention to what they are doing and only saying no to things that matter. When we do we then reinforce our rules with actions that enable the child to know we mean what we say. This lad received neither. Someday his parents will say no to something that really does matter and he will just go ahead and harm himself or them or someone else. And everyone will shake their heads and wonder how this could have happened. Our heavenly father has defined safety zones for us. We need to heed His counsel because He has thought it out. He knows what is and what is not good for us and lovingly He has told us. He is a good Father who means what He says because it is the right thing to do or not to do. I'm Roger Bothwell and my address is hrb1@tiac.net or 151 Old Farm Rd. Leominster, MA 01453. Thank you for your support of our faith ministry. Past devotionals can be accessed at Archives