Soccer Balls and Stubbornness

Last week, after playing in a local pick-up soccer game, I was sitting by the field watching as others continued to play. Several others were also watching, two of whom were a mother and her toddler son. He was toddling around by the field, and despite his mother's repeated warnings, he wandered close to the sideline and ultimately was hit by a stray soccer ball. Though shaken and in tears, he wasn't hurt.

One of my first thoughts as I saw this situation pan out was something like "How stubborn and disobedient! He won't even listen to his mother..." In thinking this, I was placing myself in the position of the observer who knows that it is stupid to not listen and obey.

And then I realized that I am all too often far more like this disobedient toddler, than like a child who heeds his mother's warnings and stays where he should be. Though God tells me the result of disobedience, I still all too often pursue it stupidly and stubbornly. I block my ears to His words and persist in my own way until I get hurt.

I - who am 24, who have been to college, who read my Bible, who should know the consequences of behaviors - still stubbornly wander away from where I should be, and all too close to those things that God warns me about. The toddler may well have more cause to judge me than I him.

But one final thing to remember: when the toddler who was hit by the soccer ball realized his mistake, he came back to his mother. Something to remember for those of us who - even despite being hurt by going our own way despite God's warnings - may still stubbornly may try to keep going that same direction. Let's learn from this toddler, and come back to God. And hopefully learn to better hear and obey, so that we won't be knocked down by a soccer ball again.