Commandments for our Welfare and Benefit

My niece Mollie was playing at her grandmother’s house one day when she asked if she could cross the street to visit a favorite aunt. The street was not a busy one, but because Mollie was only four, she was cautioned to look carefully both ways before crossing. Always an inquisitive child, she questioned this procedure, so her grandmother replied, “Such a little girl could easily get hit by a car, and I love you so much that I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Before long Mollie was back: “You lied to me! You said I would get hit by a car if I didn’t look both ways. Well, I closed my eyes and ran over and back lots of times, and a car never hit me, so you didn’t tell me the truth!”

Today I would like to talk about obedience—specifically, obedience to the Lord’s commandments. Just as a loving grandmother cautioned a four-year-old child to look both ways before crossing the street, a loving Father in Heaven has given us detailed instructions to ensure our happiness and safe arrival at our ultimate destination. Yet we often question the consequences or think we can get away with taking chances. We close our eyes to some of God’s commandments and cross the street of life. At such times it appears that we might not get hurt if we obey only some of God’s laws. Our minds don’t comprehend answers to some of the “whys” of the commandments and, like questioning children, we disobey. The Lord has said, “Keep my commandments.” He didn’t say, “Look this list over, pick out what you think pertains to you or try to work on part of these some of the time.” His instructions were simple, yet direct and unqualified: “Keep my commandments.”

If we are willing to put our trust in the Lord and keep his commandments, we have been promised that we will be blessed. The blessing might not come in the form of straight A’s, having a date every Friday night, or inheriting a lot of money. But we will grow in capacity, experiencing joy along the way as we keep more and more of the commandments and eventually become prepared for a celestial existence.

We must understand that “God is not arbitrary. He is not anxious to punish his unruly children or burden them with unnecessary commandments. Rather, he is a loving parent who wants his children to avoid the negative consequences of breaking eternal laws. He wants them to receive the promised blessings of complying with righteous principles”

-Janet G. Lee
"Crossing the Street of Life"
Sep 15, 1992