#49. Belong and Obey

Obedience doesn’t bring about belonging, the belonging comes first. When we belong, we express our connectedness through obedience. 

Obedience isn’t about keeping ten thousand rules. In our own obedience as mums, and in helping our children learn to obey, rules cover only a fraction of the surface area. Rules aren’t the entirety of obedience, they only define the edges. Rules are fences and gates; obedience is the space between. Good rules protect and direct and give definition to obedience, but they are signposts, not the substance. Rules are a step in describing the features of godliness, what it looks like to actively belong.

For their season of dependent childhood, belonging to a family, and learning to obey within that family, is the most common, enduring, complex, deepest form of evangelism and discipleship. It is a temporary season though, a season of higher dependence to prepare them to live for Jesus away from us.