free will

Have you ever found yourself asking God why He doesn't just make the decisions for us? We want to live for him...but we just keep messing up. If He would simply take control it'd be so much easier! Why DID he give us the choice? Especially when He knew we would mess up and continue messing up for eternity...when He knew it would cost His Son his life! People say He did it because He loves us and love lets there be a choice. If it's forced, it's not love. I get that. But still...if you look at it from a certain perspective it doesn't look very loving to knowingly, purposefully, let somebody hurt and destroy themselves. If you can stop it, don't you have a moral obligation to do so? Well...maybe not, actually. I remember playing outside when I was little. One time in particular my older sister was swinging and my younger brothers were playing nearby. One of them was about to walk right in front of her swing and be kicked to the ground. I hopped up to go save him but my mom called me back. "Let him be, Rachel. He needs to learn," she said. "But he's going to get hurt!" I stammered in response. She explained to me that he'd already been warned and saved enough times to have learned. But since he hadn't learned from that, he would need the experience of being knocked down to be able to remember to stay away. She was willing to let him get hurt in order to teach him and protect him in the future. I don't know if this analogy fits for how God treat us. But maybe all these times of falling down are supposed to be strengthening us and teaching us how to stand firm. Maybe these little tests are preparing us for the bigger one. Maybe because of everything He's let us suffer through, we won't be destroyed by future fires that otherwise would have scorched us. This all fits with what God has been teaching me this year - that he already knows (Dios ya sabe) and we need to have absolute trust in Him.