Gettin Into Trouble

Have you ever gotten into trouble? Stupid question. Cause…I know that you have. We all have. It’s inevitable! Somehow, somewhere along the way…..you’ve gotten into trouble. On our way to church yesterday, Klove was playing a little news about kids. According to a survey that was done recently, children that live with both parents and attend church are less likely to get into trouble! Oh really…..we laughed and joked! Are you kidding me? Who knew? DUH! It seems that this sort of “set-up” has a positive influence on the kids involved and the parents don’t have to worry about those phone calls home from school officials. Well, golly! That’s good to know!

As we drove on…Gates piped up in the back, “Dad, why is it that kids can run up and down the halls at school acting terrible and cursing their heads off and I take a bottled drink from the cafeteria and I get caught?…..and punished?”. We laughed thinking back to her crime. She was busted not long after leaving the lunchroom with said drink in her purse. It cost her a “write-up” and the embarrassment that goes along with it. (For one of my kids…..it was worse than life in Alcatraz prison) Oh the humiliation! She might as well have cursed out the Principal by the way she felt about the whole ordeal. It was ugly! Painful! But a life lesson!

Hubby responded with some good stuff. He told her how God doesn’t want her to make wrong choices. Oftentimes, he sends someone just for the purpose of holding us accountable. Then I thought about how the Holy Spirit works. That weird conviction feeling…..is the Holy Spirit! It might be a nudge or a full-on panic attack reminding you of what you’ve done wrong. Either way, God doesn’t want you to live in your sin state. So, you feel bothered by your wrong. If you don’t feel bothered…..you might want to investigate WHY?! Do a little heart monitoring.

Today during my lunch. Ally came into the teacher’s lounge…..”Mom, we have a problem. Can you come out in the hall now?”. As the door opens I see her sweet BFF, Taylor….red-faced and shaking. I ask, what is wrong and she tells me through her tears that Mrs. Martin took her cell phone away. She’s an assistant to this teacher during that period and at the beginning of class she had all the students turn off their phones. Taylor thought hers was already off, minutes into the class she was looking through her purse for her calculator and noticed her phone was on and a message had come through to her. She panicked and turned it off (and that’s when….it made a noise!). Mrs. Martin then took it away….thinking Taylor was up to something. She was so worried that she was going to have a write-up, detention, to call her mom to come pick it up….that she was going to jail (no, I just made that last one up). She was just a mess!

That’s how it is with sin. A big mess! It wrecks lives. As Christians, we cannot just live willy-nilly any old way. We have to stay on top of things. Mistakes can happen in an instant. I love that new Casting Crowns song, O Be careful little eyes what you see….. It’s so easy to get into trouble. Satan is prowling around looking for ways to trip us up. We can laugh about little issues that seem huge to kids (by the way….Mrs. Martin gave Taylor back her phone!) but as we grow the trouble grows as well. I pray that the Holy Spirit never leaves me alone in my sin (nor you). If I’m wrong……I don’t want to feel any peace about it. I beg the Lord to pierce my heart until I right it. I welcome the embarrassment that comes from being caught. I don’t want to get into trouble with God. Do you?

Proverbs 5:21-23 “For a man’s ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths. The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.”

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