Bible Reading: Psalm 119:1-8; Galatians 5:13-18

"Hey, August," Dad said at dinner. "Remember that home run you hit in the baseball game today?"

"Of course!" August grinned. "I practically blasted that ball right out of the park!"

"It was quite a hit, all right," said Dad. "When you reached third base, it looked like you would have just enough time to beat the ball to home plate, and Coach Tim motioned for you to keep going. I wondered if you would slow down and look around to see where the ball was and then decide for yourself whether to go on or stay at third."

"I wanted to look, but Coach Tim is always telling us we have to trust him and just follow his directions, so I ran for it!"

"And it's a good thing you did. Taking time to look around would have cost you a run," said Dad. "Now--who would like to compare that to living the Christian life?"

August and Ryker looked at each other. "It's like you said before," August answered. "We need to listen to God."

Dad smiled. "Right, but this time it goes a little farther. Sometimes there's something we know God wants us to do, but we hesitate. We may feel the Holy Spirit urging us to do something at a particular moment, like show someone kindness or speak up about something that's wrong, but we don't trust Him enough to immediately obey Him. We want to wait and decide for ourselves whether or not to do it."

"But if August had done that in the game today, he wouldn't have made it home," Ryker pointed out.

"Right," said Dad. "And if we don't obey God right away, by the time we make the decision, we may have missed the Lord's timing. We need to obey God as soon as we know He wants us to do something. Even though it may feel hard or scary, we have the Holy Spirit in us to give us strength so that we can display His goodness and love in everything we do."

"So is God telling you to use my home run as another example in your Sunday school class tomorrow?" asked August.

Dad thought about it a moment. "You know, I think He is!" He smiled. "Maybe He'll use it to show someone else how important it is to trust and follow Jesus."

–Carolyn Gaston