“Children, obey your parents [as God’s representatives] in all things, for this [attitude of respect and obedience] is well-pleasing to the Lord [and will bring you God’s promised blessings].” (Colossians 3:20 The Amplified Bible)
As you have noticed, the meditations I have written over the last seven and a half years could possibly be filed in boxes and stored in a small room similar to a company’s records room where they keep paper records for up to seven years before purging. If you cannot visualize such a room, then picture a small room where they keep evidence in some of the police stories you have watched on TV. Yes, the boxes could not only be stored with printed meditations, but they could be tagged with an appropriate, or accurately, fitting labels. Some labels, for example would be “Family Stuff,” “Childhood Memories,” “Sports Related Analogies,” and “Basic Everyday Stories Bringing Out Biblical Truths.” Some might be filed in boxes, based on the length of the content, “Short Ones,” “More Than One Page Ones,” or “Too Long.” Other meditations could be tagged, “Go to Church Reminders,” “Theology in Simple Terms,” and there would definitely be a box, or boxes titled, “Specific Messages for Me.”
Those all were just some examples of how the imaginary boxes of printed meditations could be tagged for storage. Now you are probably saying, “Why didn’t you refer to a tagged title of all those writings that were inspired while grocery shopping?” You are right! There would definitely have to be a designated box of meditations distinctly tagged, “While at The Store.”
Well, that last box in the examples provided, helps me transition into this morning meditation. While at the store the other day, I observed a family consisting of a young grandmother, a mother, two children between the ages of eight and ten, a two-year-old child, and a one-year-old. I am waiting patiently for them to get their carts, two carts to be exact, so I can get on with my shopping. The one-year-old is put in the cart and offers no resistance. The older children told their mother, told her, did not ask her, “We are going to look at the toys and video games.” At first, the mother was not going to permit them to wander off alone, away from her supervision. But after being convinced by sad phases and a sequence of repetitive begging words, “Please Mommy, Please Mommy, Please Mommy,” she gave them permission to go off on their own. Look, I’m still being patient, waiting to get my cart. The waiting is not over because as the young grandmother (All of us who are grandparents are young, right?), the young grandmother was trying to put the two-year-old in the cart. The two-year-old adamantly resisted! He verbally opposed it! He sat down on the store’s dirty floor with a pouty face that sometimes gave a dirty look. When lifted up to put his legs in the space where children sit near the handle of the cart, he would spread his legs as far as possible. It was as if he had been enrolled in a seminar for toddlers with part of the curricula devoted to resisting parental supervision. I’m still watching and waiting. My total being’s patience was now only external, because my internal patience had clocked out. Finally, they go off to shop.
I have a “While at The Store,” inspired meditation from that experience. It is my amended, paraphrased verse, of the scripture above. Share it with your grandchildren or your children and perhaps use this meditation as you teach your children or instruct adults. Here is my paraphrase: “ Children, obey your parents [as God’s representatives] in all things(at the grocery store, on the streets, at the park, in the house, in the car…everywhere they take you), for this [attitude of respect and obedience] (and submission to their supervision) is well-pleasing to the Lord [and will bring you God’s promised blessings]. (This verse is applicable as long as you live under my roof!)”
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful Wednesday! Be blessed!
“This is the commandment, the rules and regulations, that God, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you’re about to cross into to possess. This is so that you’ll live in deep reverence before God lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I’m commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives. Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you’re told so that you’ll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey. Attention, Israel! God, our God! God the one and only! Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got! Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:1-10 The Message Bible)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King