My definition of “fool”

“For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,”
-Proverbs 6:23

When I was a teenager, I, like so many other teenagers, thought my parents were idiots. I pretty much decided that they hadn’t the foggiest clue as to the world. They were out of touch and oblivious.

The reason I thought this, of course, was because they didn’t want me to do the stuff I wanted to do. That’s most people’s definition of a fool, by the way – the fool is someone who disagrees with them.

There were so many rules, and I didn’t really see much sense in a lot of them. I would have so preferred to be free, frolicking around and doing whatever I pleased.

In our culture, we so often see rules as something that restricts, that is wrong and confining. The word itself – “rules” – has a negative connotation. Think about the sentence I used earlier: “There were so many rules.” Doesn’t sound good, does it?

Our culture puts freedom above all things, but perfect freedom is not necessarily good. I figured this truth out perhaps a few years too late: my parents weren’t trying to be minor dictators with me – they were trying to light my path.

We learn things along the way, and these things would be of great benefit to those generations who come after, if only they weren’t so proud that they refused to listen. But there was a reason my parents told me to be in at a certain time. There was a reason why they told me no when it came to this toy or that. There was a reason they disciplined me, and it wasn’t because they just felt like it.

My parents’ rules were not designed to ruin my fun. They were designed to guide me. Their punishments were not designed to hurt me, but to lead me to something better.

It is that way with God. God does have rules, and most people think they are too strict and puritanical. We never consider that God may know something we don’t. We never consider that the wisest being in the entire galaxy, who loves us greatly, is trying to protect us. He knows everything, and He loves us. Isn’t that a good reason to listen to Him?

We have rebelled against Him, of course. We have mocked Him publically with blasphemies. We have taken His name and used it like a cuss word. We have preferred TV and sports to worship of Him. We have offended our Heavenly Father.

And in love, He will forgive the repentant ones. He even sent His Son to die in our place so that we would not have to face the punishment for our sins. He has sent His Spirit to guide us to the light – that light we so often and scornfully abandon.

I guess I’ve lived long enough to trust the words of my parents. I didn’t think much of them then, but I think much of them now. It is the same with God, only more so. He never misleads, never missteps. His guidance is perfect in all circumstances, even when we have rebelled against Him.