He makes me lie down

The Lord is my shepherd…

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

Psalm 23

 

A shepherd has many roles, but one of them is making sure the sheep are eating healthy in green pastures. Only after the sheep have eaten their fill can they rest easy. In the mind of a sheep, this takes total reliance that the shepherd has their best interest at heart and has not led them into dangerous territory.

Recently we decided that our whole family should start eating healthier meals. This meant a trip to the grocery store. While everyone else was excited to try something new, one of our daughters was not so convinced. As we walked up and down the aisles and filled the cart with the new food we would be preparing for the week, she began to get agitated that her ‘normal’ foods were not present. And the more the rest of us tried to convince her that the new foods would make her feel better and help her build strength to live forever (LOL), the more upset she became. The things she wanted (pizza rolls, mozzarella sticks, and number of items I am too embarrassed to say) were not added to the cart this trip and the battle of the wills had begun. 

 

Sometimes as parents, we are called upon to make our children do (or eat) things they don’t want to because they are good for them – even if they don’t know it. As parents, we’ve made mistakes, lived through things, and seen things that we don’t want our kids to have to experience because they impacted our lives negatively. Sometimes – let’s be real, A LOT of the time – these things are not what they want because they don’t have the long-term perspective in mind.

 

God does the same.

The shepherd MAKES his sheep lie down in green pastures. Pretty much ‘eat and rest, you sheep’. Haha, I know God is not that harsh, but this is not a suggestion. He is not giving options here. It says ‘He MAKES’ them because it’s what they need. Sheep aren’t smart enough to know where to go on their own. They need someone to lead them where to go and tell them what to do. (And left on their own they would eat all the wrong things too.) We (like my strong-willed daughter) want to do things our own way not seeing the long-term, eternal perspective. BUT when we give in to the wisdom of the Shepherd and His way of doing things not only are we satisfied but we are healthy enough to grow stronger too.