Submission and Obedience

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 6
 
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.” Ephesians 5:11Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; (Ephesians 5:1)
Children must learn obedience. As God’s children, we must also learn to obey. It’s a lesson that He will teach us over and over. It comes down to submission, and believing that He knows best. We can resist His expressed will a long time, even our whole lives; but until we rest in submission to Him, we won’t be happy. It is well if our children learn obedience early, for His glory and for their good.
Obedience on their time table, at their whim, is not true obedience. I have often told my children, “Obedience is not obedience unless it’s immediate.”
Obedience is an act, and submission is an attitude. Submission is not resignation or an unresisting compliance. Submission is the “serene expression of one at perfect peace in the hand of God” (F. Lavington). God calls us and our children to both obedience and submission (Heb. 13:1717Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. (Hebrews 13:17); James 4:77Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)).