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When my youngest was around 3 or 4 years old I figured it was a great time to install a playground in the backyard. She loved to swing, slide, and climb, as most kids that age do. I remember going to Lowes and picking out a great playground that had all the bells and whistles-a slide, swing, climbing wall, etc. I loaded the boxes into the back of my truck and headed home to put it all together.

There was one very big problem-the instruction booklet had to be over 100 pages long. It’s at this key part in the story that I found myself overwhelmed to the point that I began to skip steps in the process, cutting corners, so that I could have this all done in one day. Long story short, one day turned into 3 days, skipped steps turned into malfunctions with the swings, screws being placed in the wrong hole, and ultimately having to go back time and time again to fix things I had done out of order. It was a disaster!

The playground experiment turned out okay in the end but was a massive defeat for me and my ability to follow instructions. Skipped steps and unfollowed instructions caused so much more pain than if I had simply followed them step by step. How often is this comparable to our relationship with God? The instructions are there, but we so often want to skip steps in the process leading to great sorrow. There are warning signs that should alert us to something not being right. In Amos chapter 4 we find God’s judgment on Israel for not following instructions. The Bible says that God gave the people of Israel warning signs or signals that they were on the wrong path, yet not once did the people return to God. Time and time again God reminds the people of a misstep and says “yet you did not return to me”.

May we all be aware of the signs around us when our relationship with God is out of step. He has created an order for things that should be followed. Let us learn from the failures in our past and the failures of others so that we may keep our steps in line with him. Don’t skip steps because they will come back to bite you!