The other day my friend put on her facebook status something her little girl said. She said, "Mama, aren't you proud of me for being so good in time out?"
I've laughed about that every time I've thought about it.
But something struck me, too. Many times in life God has to put His children in "time out." We are often made to wait as we contemplate the consequences of our actions.
As a child, I remember doing something wrong and my mom or dad would tell me to go wait in my room. Now, anyone who has EVER been a child (lol) knows what THAT means! It means they are about to bring down the hammer of punishment. While I would sit quietly in my room waiting to hear what my punishment would be, I would think about what I did and I was sorry for it. For one thing, it hurt my parents. For another thing, I lost a sweet fellowship with them.
The same is when we do things we know are unpleasing to our Heavenly Father. We lose sweet fellowship with Him.
But how do we restore that fellowship? The same way we did with our parents. We accept our punishment without bitterness, repent of what we did, tell them we're sorry, and begin to build back their trust.
God wants us to have a repentant heart. Being sorry for something is not the same as being repentant. There are many things we take to the alter and are sorry for. But a lot of times we get up from telling God we're sorry and go right back to doing what it is we told Him we were sorry for.
Being repentant is being determined not to let it happen again. We have to determine that we are NOT going to go backwards in our walk with Christ. If we say we're sorry and continue to go back, we are never moving forward and we never truly regain that sweet fellowship with the Lord.
My Pastor said something one time that I have written in my Bible. He said, "People who don't live right, don't live right because they can't. They don't live right because they won't."
What greater way to show our love for Him, than by giving our lives completely to Him and live the way He desires for us to live as His children?
