Lilly Learns A Lesson

ONE SUNNY DAY, as the sparrows and larks whistled their songs throughout the barnyard a small kitten whose name was Lilly, peeked her white head out the barn door. Her big, blue eyes glistened with excitement as she darted out of the red barn.
Most of the other animals were taking their afternoon naps. Lilly’s, four sisters, two brothers, and mother were all fast asleep in the barn loft, nestled in the sweet smelling hay, but not Lilly. She was not interested in sleeping the day away. She was an explorer, and there was so much to explore around the farm.
Lilly walked across the yard to the Farmer’s porch. She jumped onto the railing to get a good view of the barnyard and to see if anything interesting was happening. Nothing out of the ordinary caught Lilly’s attention. The chickens were huddled in their small barn hiding from the sun’s heat. Ishee and her piglets were wallowing around in a giant mud puddle as Hank the hound dog sniffed a clump of white mushrooms.
Lilly batted a black and yellow sunflower with her paw. “What should I do?” She wondered aloud.
Then she saw an interesting looking hole “Hmmm,” She peered down at the hole “I wonder what is down there.”
Lilly hopped off the railing and poked her head into the hole, but all she could see was darkness. She wriggled around and inched one-step forward. The hole was twice as big as Lilly was and all at once, she decided to venture down into the hole and see where it led. She did not even think to take off the blue dress that her mother always insisted that she wear or her brown leather slippers. She did not even remember that her mother had warned her many times not to wander off some place by herself, especially into a dark hole. She just clawed her way down the hole coughing and sputtering because of the dirt.
Lilly could just make out a glimmer of light up ahead as she rounded a bend. Her eyes were round with suspense as she inched forward and came to a little opening.
The small hole widened up into a cozy room with a fireplace. Before the fireplace was a small rocking chair creaking back and forth. Lilly could just make out the gray head of a mole as he sat before his fireplace puffing on a pipe. To the left of the mole was a kitchen with cupboards and pantry space overflowing with green grass and dandelion blossoms. A little table sat lopsided in the middle of the room with one chair accompanying it. On top of the table was an empty bowl, spoon, fork, and napkin.
Lilly scrunched up her little, pink nose when she caught a whiff of the mole’s bubbling dinner as it simmered over the fireplace. Lilly studied the pot and guessed that the mole must be eating stewed grass. Her mama had told her plenty of stories of moles and gofers eating stewed grass or roasted grasshoppers.
Lilly decided to crawl back up the hole and explore something else before the mole noticed her, but all of a sudden a puff of smoke from the mole’s pipe tickled her nose. “Ah-choo!”
The mole whirled around and stood up from his rocking chair. Lilly shivered as she realized that the mole was a lot larger and taller up close than when she had first seen him in his rocking chair.
The mole marched over to the small kitten. “What are you doing in my hole?” The mole towered over Lilly.
“I-I just- well I was…” Lilly faltered as she trembled with fear.
“Just as I thought,” The mole picked Lilly up by the scruff of her neck and set her on top of his table. “I suppose you are a curious cat, but this is no place for a kitten like yourself.”
A big tear slipped down from Maddy’s eyes as she buried her face in her paws and cried. “I’m sorry, Mr. Mole, please don’t eat me.”
“I won’t eat you,” The mole smiled at the little kitten. “I only eat grass and flowers. Does your mother know that you are down here?” The mole asked Lilly.
She shook her head slowly and sighed. “No, she doesn’t.”
The mole clicked his tongue and gazed with displeasure down at the little kitty. “Why did you wander off without telling your mother? She is probably very worried about you.”
“I know,” Lilly huffed. “But I love exploring and Mama doesn’t let me to go off by myself. So I just didn’t tell her.”
“So, you disobeyed your mother?”
“I guess.” Lilly shrugged.
“You guess?” The mole asked. “You either did or didn’t and from what I can gather you certainly did disobey her.”
The mole sat down in his chair and gazed directly into Lilly’s blue eyes. “You know little, Kitty, Jesus wants children to obey their parents even when they do not understand why. You could have been hurt badly if you had ventured down a snake hole or a rat hole.”
“I know.” Lilly’s eyes filled with tears.
“Well, I better take you home to your mother. But remember this; always obey your mother no matter what because in the Bible, God has commanded children to obey their parents.”
“I will remember, Mr. Mole, I am ever so sorry.” Lilly sobbed.
“There, there, don’t cry it will be alright.” The mole comforted.
The gray mole stuck Lilly under his arm and scurried up his dark hole. It was not long before the mole set Lilly down on the soft grass above his hole. “Now you go straight home to your mother, and tell her you’re sorry for disobeying. Maybe someday, we will meet again, Little Cat.”
Lilly ran straight for the barn and met her mother as she was franticly searching the barn for her missing kitten. “Why, Lilly, where have you been?”
Lilly told her mother all that had happened and all about the kind mole who had helped her. Then the little kitten told her mother how sorry she was for disobeying and wandering off by herself.
“It’s alright, Lilly,” The calico cat comforted her kitten. “I am glad you have learned a valuable lesson today. It is very important that you always obey me because I tell you to do or not to do certain things so that you will not get hurt. You need to trust me.”
The two cats walked back into the barn and Lilly spent the rest of the day cleaning the loft because of her disobedience. However, Lilly did learn an important lesson that day. She learned that she must obey her mother because God commands children to obey their parents.

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In Ephesians 6:1 it says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” God has given each of us parents to take care of us and He wants us to listen and obey them.
Just like Lilly learned how important it is to obey her mother, so all of us should learn from her story and obey our parents.
Today, cheerfully obey your parents for this is the right thing to do.