Don’t be a donkey!

Some Bible verses are really fun to apply to other people’s lives. 
Take this one, for example:  

I’d like to teach this one to my three lovely offspring. 

Kids, don’t be like a horse or a donkey {stubborn and unwilling to listen}, who only act by force and constraint.  Please don’t make me have to crack my whip to get your attention.  I really don’t want to have to drag you around by your neck to make you obey.  

[Not literally, of course.  For the record, I don’t have a whip, and I don’t drag my kids around by any of their body parts.  Except by their feet, sometimes, but they like that.]

Yep. This is one I’d like to apply to someone else.
However, since I’ve been confronted with this verse twice this week, I’m thinking the message might be intended for me. 

{Carrie, don’t be like a donkey.}

You see – God doesn’t want to have to force us to obey, and He certainly doesn’t want to be our Taskmaster, barking orders and tapping his fingers until we listen. 

Nope. That’s not our God.  The God we serve is personal and relational to the core, and what He really desires is that we’d live along side Him – walk with Him – pour our heart out to Him – listen to Him and rest under His authority.  And He wants us to live like this so that He can change us – grow us – lead us – bless us and use us to glorify His Name forever. 

Just look at the verse right before “Don’t be like a donkey”:

It’s like He is saying, “Girl, we can do this thing one of two ways.  You can either press into your relationship with me and let me guide you, or I can poke and prod you along.  You choose.”

And although I’d love to say that I choose the listening and obeying option, I wonder if my life might suggest that I’m choosing the other.  You know, the one that resembles me looking like a stubborn, kicking donkey?

Friends, let’s stop living like a donkey.