There was a noise at the back door…
Her parents were home…
They were heading toward their bedroom…
She couldn’t let them see what she was doing…
She was breaking the rules…
She dropped what she held in her hands and dove under their bed…
The bedroom door opened.
‘Yes I agree, but…’ Her mother stopped in mid sentence.
“What’s spilled all over the floor?”
“What are you talking about?” her husband asked from the other side of the room.
“It’s my cosmetics. They’re spilled all over the floor. Maybe I knocked the box off the dresser when we left. I’ll pick it up…”
She bent down and came eye to eye with her eight year old daughter hiding under the bed.
“Margaret?”
It was always a bad sign when her mother called her ‘Margaret’.
It meant trouble was on the way.
Margaret, come out from under the bed this instant!”
“Look at you!”
She was covered in lipstick. Bright red on her lips, (or at least in the general vicinity of her lips) a pinkish hue rubbed into her cheeks, both hands covered with a mix of the two colors and her best dress stained where she had tried to clean her hands.
“Margaret Jean!”
The use of her formal first name along with her middle name meant that trouble was no longer on the way. It had arrived.
“You are breaking the rules of this house, young lady!”
The story happened decades ago. (We won’t say exactly how many decades.) Enough time has passed that she now has grown children of her own.
She laughs when she tells the story, but then asks a serious question…
“People who challenge my faith tell me they don’t like God’s rules. They say they won’t be allowed to have fun anymore.
Why are we so intent on breaking the rules God gave us?
How much would we gain if we just learned to love God and other people?
“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these… Mark 12: 28-31
6 thoughts on “Breaking The Rules Is So Much Fun!”
Could it be… uh… satan?
Indeed It could! Thanks for sharing your comment.
You ask a good question: “Why are we so intent on breaking the rules God gave us?”
Most of the time it’s youth. I remember a friend say that all her growing up years she thought her parents didn’t want her to have a good time. She was determined to disobey and do what she wanted. Today she is still paying the consequences of disobedience.
Thanks for sharing your comment… You’re right there is a consequence for every action!
I wish, as Kathleen writes, that I was mostly in my youth that I broke/break the rules. Sadly, I find myself forgetting to love others – especially when they appear to be in the way of what I want to do.
I agree entirely. Sometimes I’d like to claim that it’s just that I’m more aware of the rules now that I am a lot older—But that’s probably a little bit of self-delusion. Thank God for His grace!