These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. --Deuteronomy 6:6-9

In her novel about Maine, The Country of the Pointed Firs, Sara Orne Jewett describes the journey of a woman on the road to the home of a retired sea captain named Elijah Tilley. When she arrived, the woman noticed many wooden stakes scattered randomly all about the property. Each stake was painted white and trimmed in yellow, just like the captain’s house.

Curious about the wooden stakes, the woman asked Captain Tilley what they all meant. He explained that when he first plowed the ground, his plow snagged on many large rocks just beneath the surface. As a result, he set out stakes where the rocks lay so that he could avoid them when plowing in the future.

In some sense, this is what God has done with the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament. The Lord has said to us, “These are the trouble spots in life. My commandments are stakes by which you can recognize these troublesome spots. Avoid these trouble spots, and you won’t snag your plow.”

Many people today deem the Ten Commandments insignificant because of claims that they were written only for the people of God during that time period.

But 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man [or woman] of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (emphasis added).

Take some time to study each of the 10 commandments, and teach them to your family and those you love (see Matthew 5:19). Then apply them to your own life, so you can avoid the trouble spots when you’re plowing the field.

PRAYER CHALLENGE: Thank God for giving us His commandments so that we can avoid getting snagged along life’s path. Pray that He would remind you daily to follow each one in your walk with Him.