A Lesson Learned and relearned

            

 “This hurts me more than it does you.”  Have you said these words to a child you love? Do you remember hearing them from your own parent? It’s a painful memory, either way.

 

I remember hearing them from my mother when I was about 3 or 4 years of age, with dread in my heart. The worst was not a couple of swats received. It was that cold feeling of separation; perhaps the warm feeling of being loved was lost forever? I remember the terrible loneliness of seeing her walking away and sobbing as I followed, assuring her I loved her, and held my breath until she picked me up and hugged me and said she loved me. Only then would my world be okay.

 

I was just beginning to understand my freedom to entertain myself had limits. When I did something that I knew was wrong, there would be a reminder. I thank God for her teaching me the way this world worked: even as an adult there would always be penalties or rewards, sooner or later, I needed to learn to avoid those tempting things displeasing to her and later, to God. 

 

The difference is that as adults, after we ignore His warnings of dangerous places or behaviors, God may wait patiently, silently, for us again to dig ourselves into such a deep hole we can’t get out of without help, and when all else fails, we repent, promising we’ve learned that lesson. He will forgive us, knowing we mean well but more enticing temptations to go our own way are ahead and we must arm ourselves against stumbling into Satan’s traps. Like any teacher, God will allow tests occasionally to help us to see how well we do at avoiding that loss of companionship with our Heavenly Father.

 

Remember the parental warning: “This hurts me more than it does you” that you never quite believed as a child? Remember the coldness, the isolation of your separation from your parent until it is resolved?  

 

Remember the cross where He suffered the penalty that we each deserve?

 

Now, do those occasional little lapses into sin feel so small?