“You shall have no other god before me.” (Exodus 20:3)
Once we acknowledge the existence of the one God, we should then place our adoration and worship at His feet rather than at the imaginary feet of imaginary gods (Do imaginary gods have imaginary feet?). We are now perfectly positioned to accept Jesus’ invitation to take on the easy yoke rather than the difficult yoke.
However, what about those ‘gods’ who do not sit on a crescent moon somewhere in the universe? Money, for example? Our work? Material possessions? Hobbies? Addictions? Even our own children? Or a combination of the above possibilities. For example, when a hobby becomes an addiction. We can create a ‘god’ numerous ways. Those ‘gods’ become more vital to our lives than our relationship with the actual living God.
If we live in the midst of a ‘god’ created by our own hands, will that create a difficult yoke for us? Yes, and addiction is the obvious example. The addict always reaches the point when he believes he cannot live without the addiction. Eventually, he will do anything to satisfy the addiction, even to the point of destroying all other relationships, including the relationship he may have with God.
Even our children can become a more subtle ‘god’ in our lives. Often, parents will pour their whole lives into their children. Time, possessions, service, and unwarranted affirmations are all laid at the feet of the child. In many of these situations, the parent is hoping to get love in return or some aspect of guilt diminished. Eventually, the parent is lost in the constant struggle to provide for his child.
A difficult yoke for the parent? Yes, and also for the child.
In this situation, what does the easy yoke look like? Because any parent reading this could state emphatically that there is no ‘easy yoke’ in raising a child.
The ‘easy yoke’ always begins with coming to Jesus, accepting His invitation to have a relationship with Him. Following that, the parent yields to God’s Word, which has wonderful guidelines about how to raise his child. We can trust what God’s Word says about this because all of God’s commandments are centered on how to build healthy relationships both with Him and others, including our children.
Proverbs 22:6 states the following: “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”
Parent A says, “No way. Bunch of malarkey.” Parent B says, “This is wisdom from God. I will follow His ‘way’ and walk that road with my child.” Which parent has the best chance of creating the ‘easy yolk’ for himself and his child?
What a blessing to the child if the parent did everything within his power to create in his child the same strong desire to ‘come’ to Jesus? In other words, to show the child who the true God is, rather than allowing the child to grow up thinking he is some sort of god.
Again, there are endless ways to create a ‘god’ and put that god in a higher place in our lives than the real God. That never works out well. A person who does that is assured of creating a ‘difficult yoke’ rather than the easy yoke of Christ.