TRUST = OBEDIENCE

TRUST = OBEDIENCE

Joey and Carla Link

November 2015

 

Do your kids trust you? Have you ever thought about that? When I (Joey) look back on our parenting, I think I assumed our kids trusted Carla and I, but I am not sure I ever wondered if they did. I know we worked hard to build a relationship of trust with them as we learned to do in the parenting class, Growing Kids God’s Way. I recently read this in Mark 11, which got me to thinking about it again:

Jesus was going in to Jerusalem and he told two of his disciples, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

 

When I was a boy, if my father told me to steal a donkey, I would be thinking “My dad just told me to steal a donkey! If I get caught, I could get hung for it?! The donkey’s owners aren’t going to believe I would bring it back. They don’t even know who I am!” I would have even argued with Dad or at least questioned him about it.

 

Trust does not involve questioning. It is a “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, integrity, or strength of someone or something.” (Webster’s Dictionary)

 

So, if I really trusted my dad, I would think he already knew the owner of the donkey and he had made arrangements with him about me taking it, or I would believe he knew what he was doing and believe it was going to be okay, so I would go and do what my father told me to do.

 

No matter what, I was, my father’s son and my responsibility was to do what he told me to do. Just like Jesus disciples were to obey Him. Trust=Obedience. If you trust God, you will obey Him, without question. That is a hard call for those of us with the Melancholy temperament.

 

How hard is it for you to trust Jesus when He tells you to do something? If it is difficult for you to trust Jesus, do you think your kids would wonder why they should trust and obey you? As parents, have you given your kids enough reason /good experiences for them to trust you? This is why it is never a good idea to make promises you don’t make it a priority to keep.

 

The disciples “went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 

 

Jesus knew in this situation people would be there watching the colt so he prepared his disciples so they would know what to say. Jesus gave the disciples EVERYTHING they needed to prepare them for what they were doing.

 

When you tell or ask your kids to do something, or when they ask you for permission to do something, are you sure they are prepared to do it? Oftentimes we are too busy to think through all the ramifications of what we are sending our kids out to do, but not Jesus. He knew it was a busy city with Passover coming up. He prepared his kids for what they would encounter.

 

I remember when our kids were growing up I would go to the gas station to fill up with gas. This was before they had pay at the pump. I wanted to teach my kids to handle money so I would give them more than enough money to pay the store clerk. I told them to wait in the store after they paid until I got there. I knew they would get plenty of changed back after they paid for the gas. Since we traveled all the time, our kids were always going into unknown gas stations to do this for me. I was teaching them how to talk to store clerks and how to count money. If I didn’t trust the neighborhood we stopped in, I didn’t send my kids in. I would pay for the gas myself. Often when I sent the girls in, I would have their brother go in the store and stay out of their sight, but watch to see they were safe. I was teaching them how to believe in me, how to trust me.

 

“They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.”

 

Prepare your kids for the things they will eventually have to do on their own. Look for opportunities you can talk to your kids and ask them if they could trust you in a given situation. Prepare them for when you will not be around. Just one week after this scenario with Jesus and His disciples, He was crucified on the cross.

Can you think of scenarios you can use to teach your kids what trust is?