Kid on a Leash...

I spent yesterday morning in town doing a few things that needed to be done. As I was walking through the outside mall area I passed a father with his little toddler boy attached to one of those kid leashes.


Now there are a few opinions about these things such as:

How cruel to put your child in one of these contraptions - they are not animals!

or

This parent has tried everything to keep this kid disciplined - this is the only thing that works!

or

What the?....

It made me think how quick we are to judge people on first impressions. I don't know the history of this toddler. Maybe he has run into the road before and nearly got hit by a grey van. Maybe he has got lost in a supermarket before. Maybe he has been kidnapped before. I just don't know what this family's story is.

This kid leash was there as protection as well as for discipline. And it made me remember that verse in Psalm 23: ..."Thy rod and thy staff will comfort me..." The rod was there to ward off the enemy, the staff was there to hook the sheep's neck and pull them back into the flock when they were going astray.

There was both protection and discipline coming from the Shepherd.

I think that sometime's we need to embrace our 'kid leashes' - whatever they maybe. The boundaries God has put on our lives. The different convictions he has impressed on us individually. The doors He has closed infront of us. Discipline isn't always fun. But it is for our utmost best.

He chastises those whom He loves.