Don't Love Me So Much

“I'll see what GOD will say to me this time.” (Numbers 22:19)

Balaam could see a great treasure coming if only God would let him go and curse the Israelites. But, God had already said, “No.” Now Balaam comes yet again and even though there had been basically zero change in the situation, Balaam asks God to give direction because he was hoping God would change His mind. And, God appeared to. But, it was not in order for Balaam to get what he wanted. Rather, God sent Balaam to bless rather than curse His people. If we insist on our own way, God will let us go there. But, we will not reap the results we anticipated.

Most of us have, at one time or another badgered or tricked our parents or other authority into changing their minds and letting us do something that we were excited about. Children may feel like their parents don’t want them to have fun or don’t “trust them”. But, once I became a parent, my perspective suddenly broadened. A parent’s love leads them to try to cause their children to suffer the loss of friends and activities that would be damaging to the child. Unless the child always gets his way, it is inevitable that a parent will have to suffer their child’s misunderstanding. Even when a child succeeds in doing an “end run” around their parents, the result will not be what they had hoped for. One result is usually that the fooled parent will eventually find out about the trick and then the level of trust will be even lower.

After becoming a parent and raising children, I had a much different perception of my parent’s love for me. One example is the time I had my heart set on getting a motorcycle and my Dad said “No, I won’t sign your death certificate.” I pouted about that for a long time. After becoming a parent, I had a new perspective on the incident and I felt I had to go to my parents and express gratefulness for their protection from bad decisions that I wanted to make. I have also asked forgiveness for sins that I had tried to hide from them.

How many children get angry and leave home to escape their parent’s authority so they can make genuinely healthy choices? I haven’t seen many. There are a few abusive parents who may be ordering their children into sin. But, the great majority of parents are motivated by a sacrificial love for their children. They are even willing to sacrifice their child’s understanding, friendship and love in order to protect that child. Of course, parents also make mistakes and can be overly protective. Yet, we should appreciate their good intentions and respect their burden of responsibility. Sometimes God or even a parent will love us more than we love ourselves and we don't realize that we may end up actually saying, "Don't love me so much."

Project:
Express gratefulness to your parents.
Confess and ask forgiveness for wrong responses to their love. (Be specific)
Let's sincerely commit ourselves to seeking and doing God's will.
Let's Ask God for an alarm to go off in our spirit when we are beginning to demand our own way.
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