The line...

 This is the last week for Shelby Jean to play baseball this season.  She still hasn't gotten a hit yet...I have unfortunately froze at all but one game(crazy spring in the south)...and I have learned some valuable lessons from her.  I love this little girl of mine and am grateful for the things she teaches me!

Several weeks ago, Shelby had a  game. This is the first year that she has played ball and this was her third or fourth game. She is seriously the cutest thing in her little uniform and her "guiser"...also

known to the general public as visor.

That night her coach got a wild hair and decided to let the queen play pitcher. She doesn't have to pitch...the coach does that...she just plays the position. She has to wear a face mask and everything. When I

Saw her out there I said to my friend Lydia.."lawzee, they have no clue what they have done"! She has never played the position...thus she has no clue what to do with the ball.

The ball got hit in her general direction a few times but she wasn't going after the ball...she stood in her area and would not be moved. We soon realized that Shelby thought that she couldn't come out of the circle...the pitcher's mound has a chalk circle around it. Towards the end of the game a ball was hit to her...it landed about 8 inches outside of the circle. She charged the ball and then got to that white line and stopped. She then proceeded to step over and then back into the circle like 4 times. You could see the inner struggle of wanting to get the ball, but thinking the line was her boundary and not wanting to break the rules. Everyone saw it and everyone was dying laughing. It was so funny! Her coach quickly came over and explained that she could come out of the line...and she just smiled at him!

Shelby thought that the chalk line was a boundary that had been set up for her to tell her where to be. She was willing to follow that "rule" even if it mean letting the other team score 4 runs!

Far too often we live our lives like we have no boundaries or even worse...we want to toe the line. That we are free to whatever we please...we will walk as close to that line as we can without "crossing" it.  We fail to take into consideration what this does to our lives and the lives around us! God is very clear in the scripture about the guidelines he has laid out for our lives. He laid it out all throughout scripture...old testament and new...of what is expected of us. Moses preached on  the law from Mt. Sinai... Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus...Corinth...Phillipi..and others where he spoke of what we, as Christians, should and should not do...Jesus preached on specific guidelines at the Sermon on the Mount...there were obviously boundaries in the Garden! It's no suprise that boundaries and rules have been laid out for us since the beginning of time...then why do we disregard them?

We disregard them because we, being born sinful people, are selfish. We feel we have a right to do whatever we choose.  We want to live life just like the world, but yet "do" church, and because of that say we are Godly.  I can't tell you how many teens have asked me..."where is the line", and I automatically respond..."if that is your question, you've already crossed it...your question should be...how do I stay as far away from that line as possible".  We aren't in the Word enough...we aren't "putting in" the things of God...we are consumed with the worlds standards and fitting in.   We must be saturated in the Word...aware of the boundaries that have been placed...acknowledge them and obey them. It's for our good, whether we realzie it or not. 

I pray that I would know the guidelines and boundaries that God has laid out for me...that I would be aware of them...fearful of breaking them, just as Shelby was of that chalk line.  The game went on while Shelby was battling with her line...just as the world will  go on around me, but regardless of what is around me, I still have to be focused on obeying God!  May I know His word so that my life would a testimony of one who obeyed His commandements and one that chose not to cross the line!

Read these two verses below...may we obey!

(Deuteronomy  28:1–2) And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and sovertake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.

(Deuteronomy 28:15) “But lif you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and movertake you."