Last night, our family got together with some other families from church to celebrate the New Year. One couple in attendance used to be youth group leaders when I was in high school, and the wife even accompanied our youth group to a large youth gathering when I was 17, and I just learned that she was my age when she took our youth group on that trip. Their enthusiasm for youth ministry played a big role in my desire to volunteer with a church youth group once I conclude my graduate degree.
The couple now has two young, feisty daughters, and my mother took it upon herself to swap some stories of her own feisty daughter's (me) in-church antics. While discussing the challenges of raising strong-willed daughters, I shared a bit of the logic behind why I was disciplined far more than my younger sister...
When my mother would give us "to the count of three" to stop whatever we were doing, Kara would stop immediately, but I always pushed. Think about it... If you're going to give me to the count of three, why would I want to stop on one, when I can continue to have fun misbehaving until two or two and a half?
The problem with this juvenile logic, is that you never know when she's going to get to three. Sometimes, in trying to push as far as I could, I would sometimes misjudge, and "three" would just sneak up on me, and before I knew it, I was banished to a chair in the corner of the dining room, or biting down on a bar of soap.
As I've continued to think about this, along with my usual goals for the new year, like becoming a better person, etc... I started to think about my human sinful nature, and, while it has been quite some time since I have heard my mom count to three, my childish strong will has not changed.
Sinning comes so easy for us humans, no doubt aided by the fact that the devil sugar coats evil to make sin seem like so much fun, but we have been warned that Jesus will return to earth and we will face judgement for our sins. It's tempting to believe we will always have tomorrow to turn our acts around, but we have been told that no one knows when Judgement Day will come. It could be hundreds of years from now, or before tonight is over. Don't let God get to "three" before you're ready...
