Keep It Simple

As kids are apt to do quite often, Shane (my 5 year old) recently found himself in trouble for doing something he had been warned not to do a gazillion times. After administering the appropriate penalty for the offense, Monica had a little talk with him that seemed to clear things up in his mind fairly effectively. She explained to him in basic terms that his responsibility as a child was actually very simple. Where God tells Mommy & Daddy a whole bunch of things that they need to do, he only tells Shane to do one thing. All God tells kids to do is to obey their parents. That's all!
Now even though we as parents constantly tell our kids all these things that they should and shouldn't be doing, hearing it simplified really gave Shane a point of focus. He was nodding his head and you could see a light turn on inside. It ceased to be overwhelming. All he had to do was obey us, and God would be happy. That was something achieveable.
When Monica told me about their conversation, I'm sure she saw me nodding my head as a light turned on inside. I thought that was great stuff. Looking at it as myself being a child and God as my Father, even though there's a great big huge overwhelming list of individual things that I should and shouldn't do, all I really need to do is focus on obeying my Father. Keep it simple. If I actually start to tune in to what He is saying to me on a daily basis, I won't have to worry about all the should's and shouldn'ts. God is an attentive parent, He wants to do great things through me, and He will definitely find a way to grab my attention when I do something I've been warned not to a gazillion times.
Kids do what they see. If Shane sees me and Monica obeying our Father, he'll be more apt to obey us as well. "Don't do as I do, do as I say" is a real lame parenting excuse. I'm guilty of it, but it's still lame.
We tell Shane to put on his "listening ears" when we want him to really hear what we are saying.
As I am writing this, I am suddenly remembering how Jesus would say "He that has ears to hear, let him hear." I'll have to go back now and re-read those verses, because obviously what followed must have been really important.