Last night the kids learned about the brothers Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-16), and how we should follow God’s instructions. Cain and Abel were both aware of God and what He told them to do, but only one of them listened. God was pleased with the one who listened. The other decided against listening to God, and he ended up being so upset about things that he decided to murder his brother. For this, God had to punish him.
While we learned about following God’s directions, we played a game of Follow the Leader. We walked in a line behind the teacher and did what she did. If you couldn’t see the leader, you would either have to look harder or follow someone in front of you. In this we found an example: If you really want to know what to do, you should look to the leader, and sometimes people who can’t see the leader will follow you, so you’d better be doing what the leader is doing or get out of the way.
There was another example about following directions properly that the teacher gave when she cleaned pennies in vinegar. Just putting the pennies in vinegar doesn’t work, you need to add salt. She said she didn’t feel like adding salt so she’d skipped it, but that meant the pennies would stay dirty. When she did follow the directions properly, the pennies got clean very quickly. The vinegar was also stinky, adding another example: Sometimes following God’s directions isn’t going to be very enjoyable, but it will get you good things in the end.
God has laid out His directions for us very clearly in the Bible. If we don’t want to follow them, we’re only going to make things difficult for ourselves and those around us. Following God’s directions might not always be glamorous, but it is definitely the best thing to do. If we love God like we say we do, we’ll want to make Him happy by following His directions.
Related:
Instructions and Relationship
Left Instructions
Following Instructions