As parents we have rules for our children. Don’t play in the street. Don’t run with scissors. Don’t hit your brother in the head with that.

We often have a whole list of do’s and don’ts. Like “Do eat your broccoli” and “Don’t go out in the cold without your coat”. Why do we tell them what to do and what not to do? Because we love them, we know what’s best for them and we want what’s best for them.

So when God says, “Thou shalt not kill”; “Thou shalt not commit adultery”; “Thou shalt not steal”; why is He telling us these things? Because He loves us, He knows what is best for us and God wants the best for us.

He tells us to “love one another as I have loved you.” He says to forgive seventy times seven. Or the biggie “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (I’m sure this will elicit an “ouch” from feltsdia in the comments 🙂 )

We find many do’s and don’ts in the Bible. There are commands in the Old Testament and in the New. Why? He is our Heavenly Father. And just as earthy parents instruct their children for the benefit and well-being of their children, our Heavenly Father instructs us.

I remember a minister once saying that unforgiveness is like you taking poison and expecting the other person to die. God tells us to forgive because He wants us to live. I was going to say “live happy lives”, but the question of forgiving or not can become a question of living or not.

Doctors have found a connection between our state of mind and our health. (For more on this I recommend the book Deadly Emotions by Dr. Don Colbert.)

God loves you and He wants the best for you. Many of the do’s and don’ts we find in the Bible may seem so hard at times, but don’t they seem a little easier to obey when you know that if Daddy is saying to do it this way, it’s only because He loves you and wants the best for you?

Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it-because it does. (1 Corinthians 14:1, The Message Bible)