I find it difficult to do what I'm told. It's been that way my whole life. My mom would tell me to clean my room or whatever chore and I just would NOT want to do it! But every once in a while, because I knew how much my mom loved me, I would do it while she was out of the house to surprise her. I do the same thing now...
Kate: Can you make the bed please?
Conrad: Ugh... I willllll...
Kate: Okay.
(thirty minutes)
Kate: Can you please make the bed?
Conrad: I'm still laying in it!
Kate: Okay.
(Four Hours)
Kate: Didn't I ask you to make the bed?
Conrad: We're going to bed soon! Why do it now?
Kate: grrr...
Yes, I've exaggerated the circumstances, but still you get my point. But every once in a while when she leaves for class early I use my 4 or 5 minutes of free time in the morning to do AS MUCH as I possibly can to clean up the house.
My wife loves those days.
I'm working on studying through the Be Attitudes. I love the sermon on the mount. Alot of my favorite Jesus parables and wisdom is found in those few chapters, the ones that really get me through. I've been listening to this pastor who is going through the sermon on the mount and he said something that struck me after he made it through the be attitudes. Jesus did not start this sermon by telling us what to do, in fact He didn't give us a single commandment for the first 11 verses. He begins His sermon, one of the only fully recorded sermons we have of His, not by telling us what to do... but by telling us who we are. If you are a follower of Christ, you have been at some point all of the things that Jesus lists in the first 11 verses; poor in spirit (check), those who mourn (check), meek (check), those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (check check), merciful (check), pure in heart (check), peacemaker (check), persecuted for righteousness (check), when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you (check). He's giving us a list of things that we should be, of the things that we've experienced. For some of them, He's talking about the place where He found us, broken and alone, begging for bread or water to quench our soul. He's saying what we are. And knowing that I am those things, and that those things should describe me, teaches me how to die.
My mom used to (and still does sometimes) say things like:
you are the greatest son
you are such a good boy
i love you very much
My wife says things like:
I respect you.
You honor God
You have a heart for Him
You have a heart for His people
You challenge me to be better
I love you unconditionally
Jesus says things like:
I am meek
I am or have been poor in spirit
I hunger and thirst for righteousness
I am merciful
I am pure in heart
I am a peacemaker
I will be persecuted for righteousness' sake
Other will revile me and persecute me uttering evil things.
Even thought I don't live up to any of these things, that's still who I am, that's still how I'm seen by these people.
So I have to die, to the me that these people see can live.
After giving the be attitudes Jesus gives His first commandment to us:
Rejoice and be glad.
I will rejoice and be glad in knowing that I'm lovingly and mercifully learning how to die.
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