Delayed Obedience

Ok, so there are things with each of our boys that we are working on. Camden...well, Camden is learning to eat baby food and baby puffs and drink out of a cup. Landon has been introduced to the time out chair and is finding that when he screams or takes things from his brothers he has to spend a little time in the time out chair. With Ayden, we want him to obey the first time we ask him something...not to repeat ourselves over and over. He does really well with this at times, but other times I'm almost certain the look on his face means, "Seriously, I don't have time to listen right now...I'm playing!" But through the process of teaching him to obey the first time, an old phrase has come to mind. Miss Kim used to say "Delayed obedience is disobedience." Boy, looking back now I'll bet Jill and Garrett used to hate hearing that!! But, its SO true! And, I've found myself saying the same thing to Ayden recently. I was feeling kind of proud of myself to be able to impart Miss Kim Wisdom to my children...but then God used my VERY OWN words to teach me a lesson! How many times do I choose to obey Him right away...the very first time He asks? Ouch!! Sometimes I find myself pleasing me and the others around me more than I work to please my Father. Sometimes I'm afraid of what He's asking of me and try to reason with Him. Sometimes I put other people or things before Him. But, He, ever so gently, reminded me that delayed obedience is disobedience. And, really, that's the black and the white of it. I wonder what our lives would look like if we always obeyed immediately?