Psalm 1: 8 ‘My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother’
Growing up as a child I remember having rules, lots and lots of rules. Don’t chew with your mouth full, you can’t go out to play unless you’ve finished all your homework, and one of my least favourites: come straight home from school. Now my mother used to be at home from 3pm everyday so she would be there to meet my sister and I so no matter how tempting it was to go elsewhere, I had no option but to come straight home. However, my friend who I’ll call Ella, could stay out late. She lived at the end of my road and her parents would be at work till at least 8pm so she had free reign, she could go to the shops to buy sweets, something I was never allowed to do- I didn’t even eat them, she could go visit friends and do other ‘exciting’ things.
One winter afternoon Ella as usual decided to go down to the local shopping centre to hang out with some friends, from what she told me, she had a great time. Since it got dark early, she decided to go home before it got too quiet. So she took the bus back up the hill and came off by the library about two roads away from ours. As she was walking down our road to go home she noticed a car driving very slowly next to her so she quickened her pace and continued walking. She told me she noticed the car had parked and a man got out and was walking towards her and so deciding that it wasn’t safe she started to run. The man began to run after her and being only ten years old she knew her little legs wouldn’t stand a chance! As she ran and started to scream and at the moment a lady came out of her house, just on her way to run an errand. Ella knew this would be her only hope so she ran to the lady and begged her to save her from the crazy man who was chasing her. After which, the man seeing that he had been found out decided to run back to his car and drive off.
As humans we sometimes don’t appreciate instructions given to us, we don’t realise that they may be able to see the dangers that we can’t. Our parents give us instructions for a reason. Come straight home – seems simple enough. But it’s also boring Ella didn’t understand why she an only child should be forced to spend hours alone by herself in the house and thought it best to go out not fully understanding the dangers of this sinful world. Fortunately for her God provided a way of escape.
Just as parents give instructions to their children so God has given us scripture which is ‘profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness’. He has told us the way to go, but even when we fail, the Bible will point us in the right direction, it may not always be pleasant but the Bible tells us what is correct and God, being so great, has even given us instructions on how we can do what is right.
Olecia Addo
Messages From Above