Following Directions

Have you ever noticed when you buy something new, or try something new, there are usually directions to follow if you want to be successful? Well, I hate to stop and read the directions...I mean how boring is that? I'd much rather just sort of figure it out myself, or make up the directions myself....it is so much faster...don't you think?

With that in mind, I have had to laugh at myself several times this summer, as I made up my own directions with my fun habit of gardening. The directions say to plant radishes so many inches apart. (I read the directions, b/c they were SHORT).

Well, if you have seen a radish seed, it is SO SMALL, so, I figured well, why bother to plant them so far apart, I'll do the faster thing, and just you know, sprinkle them in the ground, I mean what is that going to hurt? Well, the result is that you don't get a radish worth eating. It's not good for anything. No good fruit. A wasted effort.

Then, I decided to plant tomatoes. Again, the directions say to plant them so far apart....and again, I decided I had a better idea, so I planted them closer together than that. Someone said I was suppose to prune them, so they would not get too tall, so I'd have better fruit, and well, I hate to cut things back, so I just let them go.

Well, you can see some of my tomato crop, it's good, but, I also have a tomato jungle!, and I really do wonder, if I HAD followed the directions, how many MORE tomatoes I could have had.....hummmmm...

So, of course, it makes me think about God, and what he thinks about us when we take the directions he gives us, and well, shall we say, add our own ideas to it. His word clearly tells us that we should not follow after our ideas....

Prov 3:5,6,7 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and he shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes.

Ps 119:32-35 I am quick to follow your commands, because you have set my heart free. Lord, teach me to follow your orders. Then I will obey them to the very end. Help me understand your law. Then I will follow it and obey it with all my heart. Teach me to live as you command, because that makes me very happy. Make me want to follow your covenant laws instead of wanting to gain things only for myself. (Pat's paraphrase....instead of making up my own rules).

So, I am thinking that in keeping in line with trying to follow God's directions....and not adding to it or making up my own options, maybe I should try to do the same in other areas of my life.....I wonder how successful I will be at that?