Most of you know that I have a 6 1/2 year old little girl named Lucy. As any parent knows, one of the important parts of parenting is setting boundaries, rules, guidelines for behavior. This is always one of the hardest parts for me. We are constantly asking ourselves, "Is it appropriate for her to be doing this?" I find myself vacillating back and forth between permissiveness and strictness.

Why do we have rules at all? Because we want what is best for our little girl. We want her to 1) hurt herself (pretty basic stuff here); 2) grow up to live in harmony with others and the world. 3) To be a blessing to the world! Our desire is not to oppress her or burden her, though she may feel oppressed and burdened in the moment (cleaning her room is SO HARD!). 

We understand this when it comes to parenting. But what if we understood God's laws this way? God sets the path of life before us. He calls us to walk that path because it is the way to life! The other paths won't do. They lead to emptiness and to death.

The reality is that we can never seem to keep our toes on the path of life. We are "prone to wander" as the old song says. The good news is that there is one who was fully faithful, even when we failed.

This week, we hear the part of Jesus' sermon about anger, lust, and lies. Each of these are dangerous and need to be squashed at the earliest opportunity. Even as we struggle, we trust in the one who pushed each of these aside for our sake.