I have five kids. I love them will all my heart and have learned some amazing lessons from being their dad. For example, \u00a0some years ago I was in the house studying when I heard the weirdest sound coming from outside: clunk<\/em>, clunk-clunk<\/em>, clunk-clunk<\/em>. Confused, I went to check it out.<\/p>\n One of my sons had one of those little plug-in, power-up kid Jeeps with the hard tires on it. He happened to be far away from our house, apparently leaving. The clunk<\/em>, clunk<\/em>, clunk<\/em> was him driving on the gravel. He was only about four years old, so I ran after him and stood in front of him. \u201cWhoa, buddy, where you going?\u201d He matter-of-factly stated, \u201cI\u2019m going to get doughnuts.\u201d I said, \u201cHey, buddy, you can\u2019t go get doughnuts.\u201d And he replied, \u201cI\u2019ll be back later.\u201d<\/p>\n In his mind, this was great freedom. Finally, a vehicle! But that much freedom would lead to his suffering. He was literally ready to merge onto a street that had a forty-mile-an-hour speed limit. As his father, I realized that such freedom would harm him.<\/p>\n Not long after that incident, I built a fence. Now, if my 4-year-old had attended college, he could have stood in the yard, looked at the fence, and philosophized, \u201cLook at this oppression that limits my freedom of choice and my ability to express myself. Look at the limitations that my unkind father has burdened me with.\u201d As a father, I would have said, \u201cActually, this is an act of love. If you hop the fence, you\u2019re going to get hurt. If you wander off the property, you\u2019re going to get hurt. I want you to enjoy the whole yard, but don\u2019t leave your father\u2019s household because it will be to your ruin.\u201d<\/p>\n We don\u2019t always see the love behind God\u2019s actions and motives because we\u2019re rebels. Many of us don\u2019t understand his loving protection because we are fatherless\u2014we didn\u2019t have a dad or we didn\u2019t have a dad like God. But we can find encouragement in knowing that God is a \u201cfather to the fatherless\u201d (Psalm 68:5). When God gives us laws, if we don\u2019t see him as a Father\u2014kissing us on our foreheads, sitting with us on the couch, telling us how much he loves us, and telling us that every law is a board in the fence to preserve our lives so we can run freely without being harmed\u2014then we will altogether reject a loving Father who wants life for his kids.<\/p>\n Every one of God\u2019s laws is just a plank in the fence. When you see the fence, remember that your Father loves you. Freedom is not freedom to jump the fence, but freedom to play in the yard. That\u2019s exactly how God\u2019s children are to view the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Father\u2019s laws.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have five kids. I love them will all my heart and have learned some amazing lessons from being their dad. For example, \u00a0some years ago I was in the house studying when I heard the weirdest sound coming from outside: clunk, clunk-clunk, clunk-clunk. Confused, I went to check it out. One of my sons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3052,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\n