Lots of Rules

Karen Estep describes how God keeps us safe but we must help Him keep us safe.

We use a certain saying from Conscious Discipline with our kids a lot:

Parent says, “What’s my job?

Kid responds, “To keep me safe.”

Parent asks, “What’s your job?”

Kid responds, “To help you keep me safe!”

This is a normal occurrence for me to say this with my own children; at parks, in parking lots, in stores. Part of it is due to my own anxieties and part of it is due to it truly is my job to keep them safe.

I was thinking this morning that as a convert to Catholicism, it can feel like there are so many “rules.” Fast before taking the Eucharist, don’t eat meat on Fridays during Lent, make sure you attend Mass once a week, the entirety of the 10 Commandments, and so on and so forth. At times, it can be pretty overwhelming and make your head spin. There are so many “rules” that I am still learning and will probably need help with my entire life.

However, isn’t this just God being a good parent? What’s His job? To keep me safe. What’s my job? To help Him keep me safe.

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We live in a world that gratifies instant fun, instant excitement, and if it feels good that must make it ok. A lot of that instant fun just is not safe for our souls. The spiritually safe thing is not always the easiest choice to make, but it is the right one.

We can also often find ourselves justifying this bit of fun. “Oh, I don’t really believe in it,” or “Oh, it was just for fun; nothing unholy can happen.” And the truth of the matter is, if we have to justify it to ourselves or in prayer, we probably should not have involved ourselves in that “fun.”

These temptations are often brought before us by people conveniently physically near us. We need to remember to continue to surround ourselves with those that are heading down the same path that we are. While we can love and most definitely respect everyone, we need to sometimes keep our circles of friends tight. They need to be friends that are going to cheer us on in our faith journey, no matter what they believe. I have a lot of non-Christian friends. They are wonderful and truly respect that my boundaries look a bit different than theirs.

Click to tweet:
The spiritually safe thing is not always the easiest choice to make, but it is the right one. #catholicmom

Sometimes “rules” may not seem very fun but in the end, these “rules” only help to keep us safe. When my own children feel safe, they know that they can put their trust in me. Is that not what we are called as Christians to do—put all of our trust in God? We must feel safe to do that.

No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

We are only on this earth temporarily. Our end goal is Heaven. Yes, we will make mistakes along the way and yes we have a loving God there to help pick us up when we need it. However, we need to stop getting in our own way. God gave us this wonderful thing called “Free Will” and while He does his best to help guide us towards the right path, sometimes we just do what we want. We go and have the fun and break the “rules” that help keep us safe.

In the end, when we pray the Our Father, we need to truly think about “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” God’s job is to keep us safe and our job is to help Him keep us safe. The “rules” are there to help guide our way, to help us fully enjoy our life on Earth with God as our Father. We need to step up by trying to help Him keep us safe.

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