To Win Favor

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Margaret

In yesterday’s blog we watched one-year-old Emerald successfully learn to polish window glass by imitating her Aunt Louisa. There’s a certain amount of pressure in knowing young children are watching us carefully, wanting to do what we do. It serves us well, though, since the result is a desire to live “cleaner” in front of them.

I think of my granddaughter Skylar who was all into imitating her mommy the last time I visited her in Florida. Although she knew she couldn’t do everything her mother did with the same expertise, she could set the table for dinner, which was what she did.

Yesterday we wondered if we could imitate Jesus (our example) in the same simple way. Is such a thing possible? Or is it so far out of reach we shouldn’t even to try?

When I asked God for his answer, he reminded me of Jesus’ humanity. “Human…. just like you,” he said, “so yes, try to imitate him.”

The only thing to do was “watch” the life of Jesus to see what I could imitate. Maybe it would be as simple as wiping a window or setting a table.

Here’s what I found:

He spent time studying Scripture, memorizing much it.
He separated himself from the pack of people continually following him, to carve out prayer time.
He lived simply, denying himself the creature comforts of his day.
He followed through on commitments.
He didn’t try to control people but asked questions, listening attentively for the answers.
He was willing to take risks with the establishment if it meant he could testify for God’s kingdom.
He humbled himself before others.
He never chafed under the burden of being an example to watching eyes.
He was quick to forgive.
He kept himself from complaining, even when he had reason to do so.
He endured hardship with patience.
He tolerated hunger.
He obediently stepped into God’s assignments for him, even tough ones.
He proactively resisted all kinds of temptation.
He accepted God’s call on his life.

Those are 15 straightforward ways any of us can imitate Jesus’ example. And if it would be easier to operate by one underlying principle that applies in every situation, he gives us that, too. He made decisions and successfully moved through his complicated life by using one Golden Standard to apply in every questionable situation:

Would he find favor with God?

Emerald and Skylar wanted to find favor with an aunt and a mommy, imitating them as their way to get it. The human Jesus wanted the same from his heavenly Father. And as the rest of us seek God’s favor by imitating Jesus, we too will find it.

“The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” (1 John 2:6)

An Imitation

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Margaret

Although our house is small, it has lots of windows. That’s mostly because of 12 across the back of the house, both downstairs and upstairs. Though I have no knowledge of decorating or styling a home, God is a pro at beautifying his world, and lots of windows lets us hitch onto what he’s done by inviting the outdoors in. But it’s a big job to keep 45 windows clean.

I’m grateful for Louisa, our chief window-washer in recent years, and now she’s got a mini-apprentice: little Emerald Louisa, someone else I’m very thankful for.

The other day I watched from a distance as Louisa patiently tutored her trainee, showing her how to use a squeegee and rag. Emerald watched her teacher once and immediately got down on the polishing part. As she wiped the glass, she’d occasionally glance back at her teacher to see if she was watching…. and approving. Once in a while she’d stop to pat her pudgy hands together in self-applause. She was proud of successfully imitating her Auntie Weezi.

Children are always watching, and much of their learning is accomplished through imitating. That’s why it’s critical to measure everything we do (and say) against a high standard. When babies comes along, most adults work overtime to clean up their examples, which ends up being good for both groups.

The question is, where do we find the right standard? Is there a way to appropriately measure what’s acceptable and what isn’t?

When my siblings and I were growing up, Mom steadily promoted the Bible as the Gold Standard of behavior. (Dad agreed, though was less “preachy” about it.) Mom would say, “The Bible is a measuring rod for life. Live by its principles and you’ll always do the right thing.”

It was a mouthful, especially that part about “living by its principles,” but her idea was sound, offering a gauge by which we could measure behavior, especially when we became parents modeling values in front of little ones.

As difficult as it might seem, God wants us to model our lives after the example of the “star” of the Bible, Jesus. It isn’t so we can win his approval but is for two other lofty purposes: (1) to lead satisfying, purposeful lives, and (2) to represent him well as his followers. We know we can’t be clones of Jesus, since he was sinless and we aren’t. But there are parts of his life we can imitate.

Can we imitate him the same way Emerald imitated Louisa? Could it possibly be that simple?

Tomorrow we’ll find out.

“Be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Making the Connection

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Margaret

A while ago while running errands, I saw a gutted phone booth. Though the word “phone” still identified it, today’s kids probably have no personal experience with these structures or the coin-operated phones that were in them.

When I was a child, each home was lucky to have a telephone, just one, and unless you lived in a city, you had to talk to an operator to make a call. Since we lived in the country, phone lines were shared, and if we picked up the phone and heard a conversation going on, we were to quickly put the receiver back into its cradle and try again later.

As a young teen I remember the first time we called our California cousins. Talking across 2000 miles was a phenomenon Dad wanted us to appreciate, and after the long distance operator had made the connection, Dad counted the seconds before we heard their “Hello?” on the other side of the country. It was remarkable!

Most humans have a need to communicate with others, which I believe is God-given. Some like lots of connections and others fewer, but everybody wants to link up somehow.

I recall reading about pioneers in this country who staked claims miles away from other folks, and with no one to talk to, they literally lost their minds. Similarly, prisons that have used solitary confinement as punishment find it causes serious mental and physical health problems and works against rehabilitation. As John Donne wrote, no man is an island, though God figured that out way before he did.

The Lord never intended we be without someone to talk to. After all, he physically entered the Garden of Eden each evening (after creating Adam) to converse directly with him. Surely these times were meaningful to both of them, but God also understood that his lone man needed another human to talk to, too. That’s what prompted him to make the beautiful Eve.

Of course God wants people to talk to him, too, but he also stresses the importance of communicating with each other, especially other Christians. He expounds at great length on why this is true, paralleling us to a human body with himself as the head.

He acknowledges that all of us are different, just like body parts are different, but says that together we make a wondrous, highly functional, effectively communicating whole. If one hurts, the others parts do, too. If another flourishes, the rest share in it. (1 Corinthians 12)

And he instructs us never to stop getting together or communicating, since he wants us to have conversations that uplift and also challenge each other.