"You’re Not My Mama!” - A First-Grader’s Lesson About Authority

It was near the end of the first day of school when I looked up from my desk and saw my mom peeking through the little square window in the classroom door.

The bell had not rung yet, but I got up and headed toward her.

Mrs. Tiller, my first-grade teacher, told me to sit back down.

But first-grade Pam did not appreciate that.

I planted my hands on my hips and said, “You’re not my mama!”

And I headed right on out the door.

I knew who my mother was. What I didn’t understand was whose authority I was under in that moment. My mother had entrusted me to Mrs. Tiller, and in that classroom, I was under her authority.

I had accepted Mrs. Tiller’s authority all day long—until she told me to do something I didn’t want to do.

I wonder how often we do something similar with God.

We acknowledge His authority when His direction agrees with ours. But what happens when His Word tells us to stay and we want to go? To move when we want to wait? To forgive when we would rather hold on to the offense?

Sometimes our response looks a lot like first-grade Pam, with her hands planted firmly on her hips:

“You’re not going to tell me what to do.”

Biblical submission is more than following rules. It is recognizing God’s rightful authority to direct our lives.

James 4:7 says, “Therefore, submit to God.”

James was confronting pride, selfish desires, friendship with the world, and our tendency to want our own way. The answer was submission to God.

Jesus was even more direct in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?”

I called Mrs. Tiller my teacher, but when I saw my mom, I wasn’t interested in being taught. First-grade Pam could see only her mother. Mrs. Tiller could see more. She knew the order of the day and that the bell would soon release her students to their parents.

Our view is often just as narrow.

We see one moment out of the bigger picture. We see the disappointment in front of us, the unanswered question, or the thing we desperately want.

God sees what we cannot.

One of the struggles of the Christian life is surrendering to God’s authority. It isn’t necessarily that we don’t believe Him. It may be that we haven’t fully surrendered to His right to direct us.

Maybe that’s the first-grade lesson I’m still learning, and one I think all of us have to keep practicing.

PHOTO NOTE: I’m on the second row from the left, fourth student over - with the little part in my bangs that I probably created by messing with my hair.

~Is there an area of your life where you know what God says, but you’re still standing there with your hands on your hips?~