She did it for my own darn good.

    When I was five I received some jewelry making supplies. (Sorry, whoever gave them to me - back then I only checked the cards for money and never got to the bottom part where your names were. I look for names now, but I still shake the envelope to see if I missed something important.) I loved creating my own jewelry.  I remember making one necklace-bracelet combo I was particularly proud of.  It was stunning and I wanted to wear it on school picture day.  I picked out my dress I was going to wear days in advance and informed my mother that I would also be modeling my trendy bling.  Her reaction was not what a brilliantly gifted-in-beadwork kindergartener wanted to hear.  "You are NOT wearing that to school on picture day young lady."  Ouch.  I had hoped my mom had more style sense than that. We went around quite a bit about it.  I eventually came to the conclusion that being in her eight month of pregnancy had affected her fashion judgment as much as it did her judgement on how many times a person really needed to use the bathroom in a day.
        I decided to give it one more shot.  Picture day morning had arrived and maybe, just maybe, if she actually saw how nice it all looked ON me she would change her mind.  (Unfortunately my mother is as stubborn a person as I am.)  "Christina Middle name Last name I told you that you CANNOT wear those to school."  I thought about her words as I went to my bedroom and removed my beaded treasures.  Then I slipped them into my back pack, zipped it, and skipped myself to the bus stop.  After all, she said I couldn't WEAR them to school, right?
      Right before our class had our pictures taken, we were given a moment to fix ourselves up a bit in the bathroom to make sure we looked nice enough to be displayed on the fireplace mantel the following month.  I looked decent I guess, until I slipped that beautious artwork over my head.  Then I was sharp enough to cut diamonds.  Fortunately for me, I remembered to remove the jewelry before getting off the bus.  Not sure why it never crossed my mind that Mom would actually see what I had done.  Hindsight is 20-20.  (She gave birth right about the time pictures came back. She was too distracted with the new baby to woodshed me.  God's mercy was evident in my life at a very young age.)
       Several years later as we stumbled upon my kindergarten photo, I immediately recognized her good judgment.  It turns out the beads really were hideous. "You were right, Mom. Those things are goofy looking.  You were right to tell me not to take them."  Her reply stunned me.  "I liked your beads because they were so important to you.  I didn't want you taking them because you lost everything you touched, and I knew you would cry when your necklace was gone." Whoa.  Revelation.
        I thought with all her "Do this", and "Don't do thats" she was just being stern for the heck of it.  Turns out she did that stuff out of love for me.  You know where I'm going with this. (I stole that from your blog, M.H.)
       The Bible is a big book of dos and don'ts.  God the father put them there because He loves us - not because He thinks we deserve to be beaten with a stick.  His commandments are there to keep us from harm.  He tells us plainly what will happen if we don't heed them, and He tells us plainly what will happen if we do.  He delights in our pleasure. The choice is ours.  Check out all the good he offered to the Isrealites (fancy word for Jews).  There are even bigger and better benefits available after Jesus was made alive again.  I hope you embrace His rules for your own darn good.  Because I, like God, delight in your pleasure.

As always,

I LOVE YOU

Christina Middle Name Last Name

P.S.  I DID lose the jewelry.

P.P.S.  I did something techie that I'm kinda proud of.  See that envelope icon down there?  If you click on that you can email this post to, well, whoever you want to.  May I recommend your mother?