Let The Lord Guide!

To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the proper answer of the tongue. All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD. Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. The LORD works out everything to its proper end— even the wicked for a day of disaster. Proverbs 16:1-4 NIV

Everything happens for a reason--even when we may not understand what the reason is. A lesson should be learned from everything we do and one of the lessons learned should be--unless we do things the way God guides us to do them--chances--we won't see what we planned to happen.

One of the reasons we are often disappointed with people and with self is that we won't trust The Lord.  We hem and haw about things instead of seeking Him, hearing Him, and obeying Him, and then some even get mad at Him--when they don't obey.

We are told to not lean on our own understanding, but to trust God. Do we do that? Most of the time we don't and instead of admitting it, we keep going down a merry garden path that leads nowhere.

How do we know when we're trusting God? If we do all things according to His Word, we can see how everything lines up with His promises. For example: The Word tells us to honor parents so we'll have long life. This means we obey--Godly parents who won't tell us to do the wrong thing--and respect their judgment as they guide us through life. When we don't--we run into our own self-destructive obstacle courses and then wonder what happened. For some--their lives are cut short and for many others--they end up living beneath the promises of God--simply because of their disobedience.

Parents are the authority in our lives until we develop that right relationship with God. If we cannot obey the authority we see--right in front of us--how can we ever hope to obey God? The role of parents is to guide children--teaching them right from wrong and correcting behavior that needs adjusting and living life as an example to them. When we fail to do this--we leave ourselves open to seeing rebellion and having no foundation by which to make adjustments--other than God's Word. To think we can expect children to simply "do as we say and not as we do" is the biggest mistake any parent can make. We must be a "living example of appropriate Godly behavior" so our children can and will see God in us.

Do we make mistakes as parents? Absolutely--but most of us are quick to acknowledge the mistake and move forward.  I don't know of any perfect parents because they're all human beings--subject to falling short. But that doesn't mean they should keep falling. For as long as live--we should learn from our mistakes and when we don't--we keep doing the same thing over and over again--expecting a different result--which is the definition of insanity.

The simplest solution for correcting or adjusting what we do to align with The Word--is to trust God and live according to His Word--no ifs or buts, just doing it. Let Him guide us into the place of excellence He desires and then wait for the victory to manifest itself!