"If you kids don't stop, we're going to turn this car around and go home." I don't remember what they were doing but it was ruining our fun outing and was frazzling my nerves. Usually that warning was enough to reset their behavior and on we went to the joyful day ahead. But a couple of times we did turn the car around and the kids wailed great tears of sadness in the wake of our return.

In Isaiah 48:18-19 we read: Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants also would have been like the sand, And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand....... NKJV

God was noting for His people the loss of peace and righteousness because of their disobedience. This declaration in the midst of their deliverance from the Babylonian captivity; God reminded them of what they had lost because of their stubborn refusal to follow Him.

Look at what they lost: peace like a river; righteousness like the waves of the sea; prosperity and posterity. All of this lost by stubbornness. Oh that we would learn and listen and heed the Word of the Lord.