Hebrews 3:12-15 (ESV)
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Romans 8:15 (ESV)
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

How many of us have rebelled against our father or mother? Uh, yeah, I resemble that remark. As a parent, I had “dumb as a rock” tattooed on my forehead for many years. Eventually it came off as my kids grew up. It’s amazing how much I could learn in just a few short years as they passed through the teen years. That’s just a small glimpse of what so many of us do to our eternal father. Yep, the God Father. Just as we want our kids to grow up to be healthy and secure, have it better than we did, etc., so does He.

Unfortunately, we still think He has “dumb as a rock” tattooed on his forehead. Who should live under such restrictive rules! What an idiot, doesn’t he know I don’t need his help to figure this out? Blah blah blah, roll your eyes just like you did when your kids said it to you.

Boundaries are actually freeing when it comes to us humans. It gives us the security we need to explore and experiment, to stretch the envelope. It gives us the foundation we need to build huge, the confidence to go big. It’s a question of where we set those boundaries.

Fact is, if you let your kids set their boundaries, you likely end up with a kid that’s a mess. I’ve seen it happen too many times – where parents let their kids set them because they couldn’t or wouldn’t or didn’t care. God does set boundaries, but as adults he expects us to figure it out and to make the choice to live within them. We can approach them with the love in which they are given, or we can approach it like a selfish brat. At the end of the day, he’ll let us decide.

How many times have you told your kids to “grow up”? Think about it. It applies to us adults too. God shows us the way, but we have to choose to follow.

Luke 11:9-10 (ESV)
9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.