strings of pearls...

this morning at breakfast i was having a hard time convincing adeline to stay in her chair until she was excused. she asked to be excused, i said she needed to wait for her sister to finish eating and then i dropped something on the floor. she saw this as a great way to get out of obeying: she would "help me" by picking it up, thus helping herself by getting out of her chair. i calmly told her to get back in her chair and that she wasn't helping if she wasn't obeying. i think adeline is starting to grasp how sin causes separation because in a little voice that just about broke my heart she said, "i'm sorry, ambre. can i still love you?"
how often are we in the same situation as adeline? God asks us to do something that doesn't sound pleasant and so we decided to "do something for God" other than what He asked of us. later, as we feel that we are no longer in communion with Him as a result of our independent disobedience we repent and then question the love factor. "does He still love me?" "will He still except love from me?" and God answers "of course, my child, always and forever..."
"Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
-Romans 8:38-39