dar334

This morning, after popping my earrings in my mouth because I thought they were my calcium logs, thankfully realizing it before the coffee cup hit my lips, I kissed my husband as I was leaving for work. I told him I wished I could just stay home for a couple more hours and go in late. Then I laughed and said “I can’t. I don’t have an asterisk after my name.” As I was heading toward the door I started pondering that statement, I laughed again and said “I guess I do have an asterisk after my name. But if I stayed home a couple hours I would be taking advantage of my asterisk.”

as·ter·isk.
astəˌrisk
NOUN
1.a symbol (*) used to mark printed or written text, typically as a reference to an annotation or to stand for omitted matter.

In going through life, taking advantage of that asterisk after your name is one of my biggest pet peeves. I can’t do anything about the people that take advantage of their asterisk, but I can do something about taking advantage of mine.

When God created the world and chose his people, he required certain things of them to set them apart from others. He wanted the rest of the world to know at one glance that these people were special, they were His, they had an asterisk after their name. Israel*. He saved them from 400 years of slavery in Egypt and provided for them while they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Their sandals never wore out and they had food and water. Even when they took advantage of situations, even though God forgave them they suffered consequences. But He never took away their asterisk.

We are all human, we have a sinful nature. Jesus died on the cross over 2,000 years ago as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Gone are the days for animal sacrifice, blood needing to be shed for forgiveness of our sins, Jesus shed his blood for us. For. Us.

We still take advantage of our asterisk. But do we suffer the consequences? Consequences teach us the that what we have done isn’t okay, whether large or small, in order to learn from our mistakes we need to suffer consequences. As parents it is our job to teach our children what happens when they disobey, there will be punishment. Our Father in Heaven inflicts consequences, but he never stops loving us.

As I observe the comings and goings around me, the painful truth of what happens when there are no consequences comes through loud and clear. Without punishment, disobedience is like a snowball rolling downhill. It just increases with each rotation. I don’t think anybody can change my mind that there aren’t enough consequences these days and it’s causing the negative behavior to keep snowballing.

We all have rules, we all need to obey …… or suffer the consequences.

Watch how you use your asterisk,

-dar*