Obedience?

So just how important is it Obedience? In the horse world, if you ask the trainers they would say "most important or very very important." When Emily was training Killian, even though she loves him, she would expect obedience and if he didn't give it Emily would tell us later, people would think I was abusing him. Killian is a typical boy and everything needed to be tasted or put in his mouth. Nipping is a terrible habit for a stallion. Each time he would even think about putting his mouth on Emily he was going to get disciplined but now he wouldn't even think of nipping or biting her. When Killian is obedient, he is a happy boy and his handler is a happy girl.

When Karin trains the mares if a mare would turn her rear end toward Karin, one would think the world was coming to an end. Karin acts ferocious and reacts quickly. Guess what, the mare learns very very quickly, that behavior is never acceptable. Karin expects and gets obedience from the mare and in the long run the mare is happy and so is Karin.

So what about children? Is it important to teach them to obey their parents? If the child doesn't learn this basic concept, will they believe it is important to obey their teachers in school, or their bosses at their job? My reading today was in Mark 3. Jesus is choosing his disciples and I wondered why those men. I don't believe he chose them because of their great faith, their faith often faltered. He didn't choose them because of their talent and ability. I'm sure there were others out there with WAY more charisma and talent. I believe he chose them for their willingness to obey. Hmmm what does that say about me? Yeah I know how to obey, I just don't always want to obey and yet when I finally decided to obey I'm shocked to find myself, dare I say it...happy.