“The freedom to do your own thing ends when you have obligations and responsibilities. If you want to fail yourself, you can, but you cannot do your own thing if you have responsibilities to team members.” _Lou Holtz
Doing things out of a sense of obligation is sanctifying – it burns away our pride and self-centeredness. It keeps us from making ourselves into an idol and pushes us to be a part of something bigger than our own little world of “Me.”
For example, Paul presented obligation as a motivation for taking care of our aged parents – we are to repay them (1 Timothy 5:4).
They didn’t change our diapers, bath us, feed us, protect us and provide for us because it was convenient or profitable; they were obligated and now so are we (if our parents still live). This is just one example, there are many.
One other caution. Pride is always lurking in any area and this issue of obligation is no exception. Do not allow your pride to cause you to push people away that are obligated to you. Your pride is robbing them of maturing blessing of duty and it is costing you the joy of learning humility and joyful dependence.
Remember, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven unless you are willing to become as a little child (Matthew 18:3).
The ONE THING for today: Obligations are a good thing. Pity the poor man who is so morally empty of character that he flees obligations. The man who is not obligated is a lone wolf that is only looking out for self – beware him, he is a predator.
The ONE THING 
I am reading Proverbs 7 in the English Standard Version this month. verse 14 is translated thus: “I had to offer sacrifices,[d]
and today I have paid my vows;”
As I read it this morning I thought about the words “had to”. It was something the wayward wife did, but I had the sense of it being a duty rather than a privilege. Her “obligation” was a hollow act void of meaning which led to her predatory behaviour – underscoring the truth of your last paragraph.
God help us to be sanctified in our obligations realizing the precious sacrifice our Lord was obligated to make so that we could even have the choice.
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That is a VERY good thought, dear!
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