Obedience

This is a topic that I know many people are not trying to hear. The word obedience most times carries with it a negative connotation. That's unfortunate because it's a necessary ingredient for every person to live a full, fulfilling, and satisfying life. In all areas of life, we will have to be obedient to someone throughout the entirety of our lives, and it never goes away. You're obedient to your parents as children. (Well, for the most part. I was a young rebel, so I'm speaking about myself but I know I'm not alone!) You're obedient to your teachers at school. You're obedient to your employer at your job. You're obedient to your creditors. You're obedient to your doctor.

Disobedience in any one of these categories holds unpleasant consequences. Disobedience to your parents in my day called for a spanking. (I witnessed this up close and personal being the rebel that I was. My mother didn't play that!) Today for some parents it's "time out" though many still resort to not sparing the rod, so they won't spoil the child. Disobedience to your teachers can get you sent to the principal's office, or even suspended from school. Disobedience to your employer can leave you without a job. And disobedience to your creditors can leave you with a bad credit score/report, a repossessed car, a foreclosed home, etc. Disobedience to your doctor can bring health problems or unresolved healing of an existing health problem.

If you have a personal trainer, you must be obedient to them if you want to achieve the results that you hired them to help you attain. If you stop and think about it, there is a level of obedience that must be applied to every relationship. Whether we like it or not, obedience is just a part of our daily lives.

We're even subject to obedience to inanimate objects. There are deadly consequences to disobeying traffic lights and/or traffic signs. There could be deadly consequences to not obeying marked signs on an airplane. We must be obedient to laws of the land. Although they are just words written on a piece of paper, there are dire consequences to not doing what those words say.

Merriam-Webster defines obedience as "an act or instance of obeying". The Greek word for obedience, Hupotasso, breaks this thing down in biblical terms. It defines obedience as:

• to arrange under, to subordinate
• to subject, put in subjection
• to subject one's self, obey
• to submit to one's control
• to yield to one's admonition or advice
• to obey, be subject

This, in some cases, is not an easy task, but it is a part of life so we might as well do it with joy. In some instances it requires putting yourself on the back burner with much humility. These could be situations such as caring for aging parents, or being a caregiver for an ill family member. Even as adults, we should still be obedient to our parents in certain situations, and if we are married, spouses should be obedient to one another.

Actually, working toward your goals in order to achieve success requires obedience to one's self. Attaining the things we want for our lives requires determination and discipline, and you must operate from a place of obedience to the goal you set for yourself. For instance, say you're writing a book. You set a date for yourself when you want this book to be completed to send off for copyright. Your primary goal to achieve completion of this book is to write for one hour every day without fail. So you make this your goal with every intention of obediently carrying out the goal you have given yourself. You are gung ho and ready to go! However, as our feelings shift from day to day, you make excuses not to write today. I had a long day at work. I'm sleepy; I need to catch up on my rest. I'll type two hours tomorrow to make up for today. The excuses go on and on. Before you know it, you're a week behind on your hour a day goal, then a month, then a year! Your disobedience to your own standard has sabotaged your goal, and sadly you have no one to blame but yourself.

Learning to be obedient to ourselves requires operating a new skill-set level. When obedience is looked at as self-improvement it can be a greater motivator to push us to a higher level of determination in order to achieve success in whatever it is we are after. Obedience is required on so many levels that we probably never even think about.

So, are you getting the picture? From sun up to sun down on any given day, you will find yourself in a position to be obedient or disobedient. It's a daily choice that's put in front of each of us I'm sure many times a day. Though there are some who take the risk of walking outside of those parameters, for the most part we all walk in a place of obedience in every area of our lives, every day of our lives.

It is my desire to fuel your level of ambition to the place to see obedience in a whole new way. It is the driving force to success on so many levels. Let's go for it, climb higher, and be all we can be through submitting to this action.