waiting for obedience.

Saw this on a sign the other day...


"Delayed obedience is still disobedience"

Well, I guess this is true.  Except that delayed obedience eventually results in obedience.  So, delayed obedience is still obedience.  The truth is that the disobedience is in the delay, but when the delay is over, the disobedience ends.  I am reminded of the story Jesus told about the two sons from Matthew 21...

    ²⁸ “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

   ²⁹ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

   ³⁰ “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

   ³¹ “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

   “The first,” they answered.

   Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

I have a few boys, and believe me, I get it that there is disobedience in the delay.  I can tell them to clean their room, and I might as well have rang the bell signaling the start of round 1.  Four hours later... a clean room, a tired dad/referee/motivational speaker/disciplinarian and a handful of grumpy children.  Four hours and 15 minutes later... a messy room again.  If they would have obeyed and cleaned when I told them to, it would have only taken 20 minutes to clean it, so in the end, there was approximately 3 hours and 40 minutes of disobedience followed by 20 minutes of obedience.  


Ultimately there was obedience - and that's what I want to teach my boys.  Everything goes better when you obey.  I guess it is a good lesson for me as well.


How's this for a church sign... "Obey and don't delay."