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 The danger in cherry-picking only the Scriptures we like is that it leaves out a substantial portion of the Bible that is filled with instruction, direction, warning, and wisdom. Most people have a handful of go-to verses. They’ve memorized them, stenciled them on pieces of driftwood, and hung them in their dining rooms, living rooms, or offices, some even going so far as to tattoo them on their bodies.

Having a tattoo of Leviticus 19:28 on your bicep is a weird kind of flex, but there are so many other things the modern-day church needs to get right before concerning itself with the I heart mom ink someone got decades before they met Jesus that it’ll be a minute before we address such matters. Joyce Meyer already gave her consent. Who am I to argue with the oldest woman in the world known to be made of plastic? It’s fantastic.

But you don’t understand; you’re a man. Don’t I? Does my being a man disqualify me from understanding vanity? As with all other things, we either choose to give in, embrace, and make excuses for it or reject it as something not worth concerning ourselves with or spending too much time on. Again, bigger fish to fry before we get into the arena of vanity and why it speaks to people’s character, but that doesn’t mean it’s inconsequential.

It’s human nature to be averse to correction. Most of us are born with an inherent predisposition to shun it, avoid it, and reject it, and you see it in children barely old enough to understand that you don’t get to wear a diaper for the rest of your life, no matter how convenient it might be.

Both of my girls are strong-willed in their own way, and both of them react in like manner when they are corrected, told no, or otherwise kept from doing something that will likely cause them harm and earn us a trip to the emergency room.

When I say no, and they ask why, my answer is always because it’s for their good, but they don’t see it that way. Trying to do a backflip from the highest point of the jungle gym in the park isn’t dangerous to them; it’s cool and exciting and something they know other kids will envy.

We act the same way with God more often than we would like to admit to ourselves. Each time we try to pursue something that will set us back spiritually or stunt our growth because we are no longer consuming spiritually nutritive food, He points it out, and we do our best to convince Him that’s not the thing that’s hurting us.

We try to tell God with a straight face that it’s not the broken leg that’s keeping us from running a marathon; it’s the hangnail we discovered as we were clipping our nails that morning. If God insists that something is bad for you, it’s best that you heed His advice and avoid it rather than try to convince Him that it’s not as bad as He thinks it is.

Even though my girls throw out the obligatory why whenever I tell them they can’t do something, because they know I love them and want what’s best for them, because they know I will go to lengths heretofore unheard of to protect them and sacrifice my own happiness for theirs, they acquiesce and end up listening.

Whenever I nix an idea, it’s not because I don’t want them to have fun or enjoy time with their friends. It’s just because it’s demonstrably a terrible idea, to begin with, that the mind of a nine-year-old came up with on a whim, but that the mind of an adult can see from different angles, thereby perceiving the danger.

Believe God when He tells you something is dangerous. Believe Him when He tells you something is not beneficial for your spiritual well-being. He’s not trying to be a wet blanket; He’s not trying to harsh your mellow. He’s trying to keep you safe.

Ignoring His warnings or pretending as though they are not within the pages of Scripture is spiritually detrimental in the long term, not because God’s trying to teach you a lesson, thereby making the consequences of your choices hit you so hard you’ll have a concussion, but because the nature of the choices you made in contravention to His instruction carry such heavy consequences.

If God says no, you do it anyway, and your life falls apart as a consequence, you can’t blame God for where you are because where you are isn’t where He told you to be. God tried to warn you off the trajectory; plenty of warning signs flashed red, stinging your eyes, but you kept on, determined, having made your mind up and letting nothing stand in your way.

“Can I have this, Lord?”

“No!”

“But I really want it.”

“No!”

“But You don’t understand. I really want it. What’s the worst that can happen anyway?”

Five years, a divorce, two bankruptcies, and a heart murmur later, you start to understand why God said what He said and what He was trying to protect you from, but too late to do anything about it.

Do what God tells you to do, and you will avoid much heartache. Accept that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and not just the handful of verses you like, and you will find His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.