Mindful Monday: Rules

Mindful Monday: On Monday's I'm going to share what's been on my mind. I by no means have any of this figured out, I'm just thinking out loud here.

In the small group I'm in we're going through the parable of the prodigal son found in Luke 15. Without getting too much into detail, I'll just say that the main point of the study is that both of the sons in the story are lost.  Normally the focus is on the younger son, known as the prodigal. This study focuses on comparing and contrasting the two sons,&their attitudes and their interactions with the father.

What struck me this week was that both sons are focused on the rules and performance.  The younger son (the prodigal) is focused on all the rules he has broken while the older son is focused on all the rules he has kept. Yet the father is not interested in rules.  He accepts them each, regardless of their actions or attitudes.  It's not about rules, it's about relationship.  There is no way to earn God's approval, it's a gift he chooses to extend, no questions asked.  While the sons are focused on rules and actions, the father is focused on the person himself.  Both are his sons and nothing can change that.

There are a lot more similarities, differences and observations to be learned from this story, but I'll leave it at that for now.

Food for Thought: "Hope is a thing without feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without  the words and never stops at all." -Emily Dickinson