Beware of anything that can split your oneness with Him, causing you to see yourself as separate from Him. Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me….” The intellectual, moral, and spiritual depth of our reality as a person is tested and measured by these words. Yet in every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real, we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus. – Oswald Chambers
This morning milk was spilled across the counter and onto the floor, cabinets and toes. Without realizing it, his hands moved faster than his eyes…the lid was off. An accident quickly became a life lesson that was literally over spilled milk.
We can observe and understand all the details about ourselves. We might know that we are energetic and extroverted or peaceful and introverted. We can know if we use intuition or not. We may comprehend our types and underlying fears and motivations. We might deflect very real and hard truths about ourselves to save face, and know we are doing it all the same. We can understand all these things about our human experience, but it does nothing to just understand it. What does do something is knowing what to do with it all, how to apply it, how to grow and stretch and use our unique composition for the gain and glory of Christ. Observation and awareness of who and how we are is ineffectual unless it is activated.
This mishap that came this morning would have been useless if we had not come to a conversation of “What was learned here?” And “Yes, but dig deeper.” And “What caused you to feel and react in that way?” And “What would be helpful for you to learn how to respond vs. react?” And “What does that mean for you?”. Through this deeper conversation, we became aware that there was a lack of attention to something that kept it all from spilling out, literally and figuratively. The lesson wasn’t only for my child. Before we can help shape the hearts of our children, we must begin to use the tools on our much more hardened hearts.
Awareness might be useless until we become aware of the void that only Christ can fill in our lacking; that the fruit of the Spirit is reachable only by His grace and goodness. Self-awareness and observation become useful when we put that which we are made aware of next to Gospel-deep truths and see how it aligns with Christ’s will and love, or how it splits our oneness with Him. Only then can there be glory in knowing anything about who we are, how we function, and what we do with it; otherwise, it is all just vainity. The win isn’t that we know ourselves, the win is when we turn what we know of ourselves over to the God who will shape us into the people He intended us to be. When we come honestly without disputing the findings and in a posture of surrender, we are able to push forward with the information and observations and begin the much harder work of transformation. We must take all of our stuff, our intellectual, moral and spiritual stuff to the Cross and examine it there. What grace, that when we learn to come to His feet, asking for Him to press in to us even further and make us even more aware, we receive more fruit, more refining, more grace, more Christ. Transformation.
Through our best and worse experiences, when make ourselves available to press in to these deeper truths, when we don’t let the opportunities slip by, God instructs and leads us into a richer and fuller way of living. And by some crazy portion of grace, we get to use those experiences to teach our children how to utilize awareness in their own lives, which might be one of the best tools we give them as parents.
Reflection Questions
Right now, what is splitting my oneness with Jesus? What am I disputing and disregarding that is separating me from Him?
Am I simply becoming aware of how I am reacting, responding and functioning or am I taking it to the deeper level of finding how it lines up (or doesn’t) with Christ?
In what ways am I intentionally digging in and helping my kids become more aware of how they are working and living? How am I cultivating a way of life that sends that information through the filters of the Gospel and Truth? What questions am I asking them, which questions do I need to ask more often? And am I being honest with my own answers?
In observation, am I seeing how fruit of the Spirit is showing up in my life, in my child’s? In awareness, am I seeing a lack of fruit? How can I bend more so that He can yield more fruit in me?
Which unhealthy characteristics of myself am I aware of? Healthy? What do I intend to do with this information so that transformation can happen?
Which unhealthy and healthy characteristics of my children am I noticing? How do I partner with Holy Spirit in leading them to healthiness and their own awareness of these patterns or mechanisms?
How am I taking all of these observations and information and move toward transforming my heart in the likeness of Christ?