My son (my second born and youngest) is quite the adventurous two year old little monkey.  He is extremely sweet but also fearless in whatever activity he is involved in.  Whether acrobatics off our living room furniture or running at lightning speed through our home, he goes full speed ahead from morning till night.  Every so often, before he does something crazy, he will ask for permission first.  This happened a few days ago and my response was, “No, baby.”  His response was, “Pwease, Daddy!!!”  I responded again, “I’m sorry baby, no.”  Commence with two year old tantrum.  On this particular day my son decided he would choose to blatantly disobey me right in front of me….and I let him.  Bad parenting?  Nope.  Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.  Once more I responded in a loud tone, “I said NO!” [in my best DEEP Daddy voice—we all know that’s a hard one as my voice never dropped, LOL!]  Just as I suspected, this particular action left him in pain.  The pain had more to do with his bruised pride than the little bump on his knee.  I looked him straight in the eye and said, “Didn’t Daddy tell you not to do that?”  His response through big crocodile tears was, “Yeah……hold me, pwease!”  I walked over and picked him up and began inspecting him.  As I suspected, nothing was broken or bleeding.  We sat in the rocker in his room for a few minutes as I rubbed his backed and attempted to calm him down.  After the tears had dried I began talking to him.  “Moose (a nickname), Daddy wasn’t trying to be mean.  When I tell you not to do something it’s to keep you from getting hurt, not to keep you from having fun.  You need to listen to Daddy next time or you could get hurt again.”  He responded with a humble, “Okay,” as he hugged my neck and set off for his next adventure.

I understood his frustration.  At times I have the same issue with my Father.  No, not my earthly Father (though that was the case in my earlier years).  I’m talking about my heavenly Father.  I’ll ask His permission to do something.  His response is, “No, son.”  At that moment I have a few options.  I can throw a fit (which I’ve been known to do), disobey and do it anyway (which I also sometimes do), and yet other times I actually walk away nurturing my frustration and heed the warning.  No one wants to hear a “no” response.  It’s frustrating and leaves you mad and feeling slightly betrayed.  My goal wasn’t to prevent my son from doing something fun but to keep him safe.  It’s the same way with our Heavenly Father.  We like to throw a tantrum filled with kicking and screaming when we don’t get our way.  The word of God encourages us to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct thy paths.”   [Proverbs 3:5-6]   “Lean NOT unto your own understanding……”  Chances are you’re going to screw something up or get yourself hurt because you don’t know what’s coming around the next corner.  But there are benefits to placing your trust in Him and acknowledging Him…… “He will direct thy paths…”  That’s not a one-time promise.  He will direct thy PATH’S!  That’s a plural word…..more than one path.  I encourage you to change the way you respond to your next “no” from God.  You can ask Him why, though be prepared not to receive a response from time to time.  Or you can say, “Okay, God.  I don’t understand.  I don’t like it.  But I’ll trust you!”  I can assure you that in many of those instances you will look back later and realize you dodged more than your fair share of bullets.  There’s divine protection in submission.  You can save yourself a lot of hurt if you’ll just listen.