Rules...

David loves when we play solitaire (with real cards, not on the computer).  David isn't interested in the game as much as stacking the cards in order by suite from Ace to King.  As I am dealing the cards or counting out the three to see if there are any moves during the game, it is not unusual for David to eagerly (and sometimes roughly) grab a card that he needs to put on one of the piles - especially if it is an Ace to start a pile.  It is not unusual for me to cheat and to count out only one or two cards at a time just so that David can get the cards he needs to make his stacks.

This afternoon as we were playing Solitaire, I decided to see how David would react if I made weird moves - like putting a jack on a seven.  He noticed and did not like me cheating like that.  I laughed at him because the next move he pulled a six card out of the middle of the three cards I counted out to put on one of his piles.  I guess the rules only apply to me, not him.

As a Christian, I often act the same way.  I think it's okay to break one of God's rules to suit what I want or think i need, but I expect everyone else to do right all the time.  God told us that everything should be done decently and in order (I Corinthians 14:40).  That tells me that God is very interested in things being done according to the rules He has provided for us in the Bible.  I may think I am accomplishing my desires and goals by bending or breaking the rules, but I am not.  What David and I do isn't really playing Solitaire.  I tell people we play Solitaire, but we really don't, because we don't follow the rules. 

Breaking the rules playing Solitaire with David has no eternal repurcussions.  But in living our lives for God, everything we do has eternal ramifications.  I needed this reminder to today as I try to live by God's rules, and not mine.