Scripture

Teach them God’s decrees, and give them His instructions. Show them how to conduct their lives.

~Exodus 18:20, NLT

Quote

God has given us His instructions. It is all there, every word, in a book called the Bible.

~Chuck Swindoll

Troy joined the Bailey clan when he married our oldest daughter Hannah. Troy could have been a musician; he is a perfectionist and Bailey’s are not. We get something that has to be assembled and we take a quick look at the picture on the box and then we go to town. When we finish the assembly, we have extra parts that the manufacturers foolishly put in the box. Not Troy, he finds the instructions and reads every word. Then he tells you how he thinks it is going to work and then he reads the instructions again. It will not be a quick fix with Troy but it will be done right and there will be no extra parts. Troy follows instructions. There are three ways to learn: [1] First and preferred is by instruction, [2] Second is by example: you watch Troy put it together and learn from his experience and [3], the Bailey way, is trial and error. Sometimes we get it right on the third attempt and sometimes we never get it right.

The Israelites were Bailey’s or Bailenbergs, or Bailensteins: they were too hard headed to follow instructions. God gave them explicit instructions but they refused to listen or to follow His instruction. Ironically, His instructions were for their own good. He was trying to save them some misery but they so loved misery that they refused to follow His instructions. Have you ever hired a person to work for you and then they refused to do what you told them to do. It creates a little tension doesn’t it. It is very frustrating to deal with a hired worker who insist on doing his own thing. If you make it in the work world, you have to learn to follow instructions or else you are going to get fired.

Extra

The girls are headed to the mountains and Big Mama and I opted to stay home. A lot of factors entered in to our decision but I believe we made the right decision. We will shoot for next year. I was going to restart the blogs next year but since I have a few that I have not posted, I thought I would go ahead and restart. I hope you had a good Christmas. The Bailey’s cannot complain. I do know that we have a lot of hurting people and we can’t forget them.

God bless you. Have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.