Last night, after dinner, my niece began to grow terribly upset. Earlier in the day, she had been told, repeatedly, that if she didn't fold her clothes and put them away, she wouldn't get dessert, yet, she had refused. Now, suffering the fate of which she had been warned, she ran up to her room, crying.
In this situation, I saw a rather sobering analogy. None of us want to find ourselves in my niece's situation, having been warned of something we didn't want to happen, but failing to heed that warning. God has given us commandments, yet we sometimes choose to disobey them, despite being warned of consequences to come and of blessings to be withheld. Having been given chances to qualify for her reward, but having squandered them all, my niece must have been devastated.
But she hadn't yet squandered all of her chances. After crying for a while in her room and while everyone else was eating dessert, my niece started folding her clothes. While she could have easily spent all night feeling sorry for herself, she instead went to work on fixing the situation.
We can do the same. I don't know at what point it will be everlastingly too late to start keeping the commandments, but that point hasn't come yet. We can still repent and come unto God by keeping the commandments. And as long as we are tying to keep the commandments, God is willing to help us.
Having folded her laundry, my niece came down to the dining room, hoping for dessert, however, the rule was the she also had to put her clothes away. She went back up to finish her chore, but this time, her sister was sent up to help her.
One of the ways God blesses us for even being willing to keep the commandments is by helping us to do it. He gives us a portion of His spirit to guide us. When necessary, He even sends angels to help us. God wants us to succeed because He wants to be able to bless us, because He wants us to be happy.
Thankfully, my niece managed to complete her chore before bedtime and was rewarded with her dessert, proving that even if we've been disobedient, we can repent and begin to earn the blessings promised only to those who keep the commandments.
I'm grateful for the justice and mercy of God in offering us blessings for keeping the commandments and giving us every opportunity to earn those blessings. The commandments of God may sometimes seem stiff and rigid, but they exist for our benefit, and God will always bless us for keeping them, even if our obedience, and thus our blessings, come much later than either of us would have liked.
No comments:
Post a Comment