Emotion, Desire, or Knowledge?

Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get. (Matthew 7:12)

Plato told us human behavior flows from three sources: desire, emotion, or knowledge. Thinking upon that one a bit, it is clear to see how behavior can flow from emotion, for many of our 'responses' in life are emotion based. Desire certainly plays a huge part in us either pursuing or avoiding certain things. Knowledge is learned and can take us a while to grasp, making emotion and desire seem a whole lot easier for us rely upon! Until we learn that all emotional responses may not produce the best behavior (actions), we might keep leaning upon emotion too much. Unless the desire we lean into is one Christ would have us pursue, we are spending a lot of time pursuing something that may not always work out the way we hoped it would. We need to be taught which desires are good, neutral, or bad. Equally important, we need to realize when emotion is not to be relied upon as our sole means of deciding to act. Actions based on knowledge tend to be a little better than those just taken without forethought or planning!

Behavior is frequently modeled and then emulated. When we see others behaving badly, does that behavior turn us away, or draw us in? Sometimes we are drawn in because we are way too dependent upon our emotions to guide our actions in those circumstances. It is a fine balance between knowing when emotion is guiding us to take 'reasonable' actions and when it is encouraging us to tread on thin ice! As the scripture implies, we need to have some guidance for our behavior. Perhaps that is why God gave us such a positive example in Christ. He also provided more than one example in scripture of godly men and women who struggled with desire and emotion, balancing it all within the realm of what they knew and trusted about God himself. This might just be key to obtaining that balance - getting the knowledge that comes from trusting God with what we don't understand fully and what seems to pull on our emotional strings all too easily. 

Grab the initiative and do it isn't license to do whatever feels good. It is instruction to consider what is good, proper, pure, and holy, then put it into action. We act upon what God teaches and see the goodness it produces in the lives of others. Jesus thought about others all the time. He fed the hungry, taught the unlearned, played with the children, and healed the sick. Maybe one of the best things we can is ask him to teach us how to live well, behaving in a manner that brings more goodness into a person's life. Just sayin!

Emotions in battle mode?

I have had those moments when I just wanted to say or doing something, but if I did, I knew the backlash would be more than I wanted to receive. It is a battle of the mind and will over emotions at times, isn't it? We 'think better' than our emotions tend to lead us on occasion - perhaps making 'emotions' one of the hardest and most fickle things we have to deal with once we get our mind under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit. Doing wrong is easy - doing right is a bit harder at times. Behavior matters, no matter what anyone says - behavior stems from all three - mind, will and emotions.

Doing wrong leads to disgrace, and scandalous behavior brings contempt. (Proverbs 18:3)

Back in the day, teachers used to give out little 'awards' to students with great academic achievements, including those who consistently exhibited good 'classroom behavior'. As you might have guessed, I might have received a few notes home to mom saying I was a bit of the class clown. She may not have put it that way, but it was my mode of operation in elementary school, somewhat in middle school, then full-blown in high school! I really didn't consider my behavior wrong, it was just silly, sometimes a bit inappropriate, but it got people to laugh. I thought if they laughed at my weirdness, I wouldn't be so 'weird' to them.

My emotions were all over the place in those days. I didn't think anyone really liked me, maybe because I didn't like myself. I was using sarcasm, 'funny actions', and the like to cover over being very insecure. It wasn't until I invited Jesus into my life that I began to realize those 'emotions' I was telling myself were true and honest appraisals of how others saw me were actually quite wrong. All my 'class clown' actions were just driving them away - even though they laughed. Sometimes we 'do' things thinking they will have a different effect than they actually do. We count on them to accomplish something, but it kind of backfires on us.

It might be hard to hear this, but God is very concerned with our behavior. He wants it to reflect his grace and love, even when it is hard to let those 'actions' outweigh what our emotions are telling us to do at that moment. His hope is that we will let emotions lead us less and less, trusting his Holy Spirit to lead us into right actions even when the mind, will, and emotions are in 'battle mode' against each other. Just sayin!

Is this God's will?

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. (I John 2:15-16)

At times, people will ask me how they can know if a particular decision is 'in God's will'. I have found that using this verse as a guide to 'weed out' the ones that really aren't the best for us has helped me. If the craving is for some form of physical pleasure, I take a moment longer to consider the choice. If it is just because I see everyone is on the bandwagon to get something, I step back and wait to see if that 'thing' or 'activity' really is necessary or is just a nicety. If those two don't stop me in my tracks, I consider just how much my pride is motivating a particular decision. If it seems that pride is pushing me forward, I step back even further because I know pride comes before a downward trend!

It amazes me how much the enemy of our souls uses these three things to get us wrapped up in 'stuff' and 'relationships' that we just didn't need or shouldn't have pursued in the first place. The eyes take it all in, the emotions get us all wrapped up in knots over it, and our pride is just too heck-bent on getting its own way! Stop long enough to consider what you are allowing in through your 'eye gate' and you might just find you need to stop looking. Contemplate something long enough, allowing your emotions to override common sense and you might just end up regretting the choice all together. Get even the tiniest bit of pride behind your emotions or lust of the eyes and you might just be a goner!

The very next verse says, "And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever." (v 17) Those things are elusive and oftentimes quite deceptive. Learning to do what please God begins by recognizing when we are getting caught up in one of those three traps we just discussed. The more we recognize behavior or choices that don't bring honor to God or edify our spirits, the quicker we will be to recognize the right choice or behavior. God doesn't make it hard for us to know his will, but he does know how much we struggle to recognize the things that are NOT of his will. Whenever our 'rational thought' gets put into the mix, the 'irrational behavior' is just around the corner. Sometimes the will of God doesn't seem all that 'rational', but we may just have to stop listening to our intellect and start listening to the still small voice of the Spirit within who urges us toward right behavior. Just sayin!

Life Hack #14 - Behavior Matters

Life Hack #14:

Dear child, if you become wise, I’ll be one happy parent. My heart will dance and sing to the tuneful truth you’ll speak. (Proverbs 23:15-16)

None of us become wise overnight, but in the development of our lives, we learn to embrace truths and live well. In turn, we bring honor to our parents - if not our earthly father or mother, then our heavenly Father is honored immensely!  Whatever the "parenting style" you were raised under, know this: God can "undo" the wrong stuff our parents did with us or to us in our lives just as much as he can magnify the good stuff!

God wants every one of his children to become wise. How is this wisdom manifest? In the truth we speak and reveal with our actions. The soundness of heart is often betrayed by the words we speak, is it not? There are times people try to deliver such polished speeches, believing their words will mask the underlying misery in their lives. Our words can only do so much to mask what is truthfully within the recesses of our hearts - in time, the truth will come out. The "soundness" of one's heart is determined by the things held as truths upon which we base our lives - so when we get the truth IN, it will eventually come OUT in the words we speak.

God doesn't just look at the "rightness" of our speech, but with getting the right foundation worked into our lives so that we bring honor to God in all we do. When the right foundation is allowed to permeate our lives, we begin to see character formation which will yield "solid" decision making, "right" actions, and "disciplined" living. Our words begin to reflect this foundation. I tried to instill some of the basics into the lives of my children, but trust me, I had to learn some of those basics right alongside them! 

It wasn't that my parents didn't try to teach me those basics when I was younger, but I just didn't fully embrace them in my youth! Things like thinking of another instead of always thinking of your own wants or desires, or perhaps being truthful and above board in your dealings. These were life lessons taught, but not fully "caught" until I realized how much my "modeled" behavior influenced the words I spoke to my children!

"Principled living" is developed in the course of time. Principled words are an outflow of embracing the principles one is taught. We cannot always count on our earthly parents to have modeled the behaviors we needed to catch, but we can count on our heavenly Father to have provided the individuals in our lives who will help us to model the behaviors we need to catch onto in our lives. God is faithful, even when our earthly parents maybe were not. 

Can we be "un-parented" from the standpoint of letting go of modeled behaviors which were not good or honoring to God? In trusting God's oversight in our lives, embracing truth as he reveals it, and in letting go of the wrongs we experienced at the hands of those who didn't model the right behavior, we can move forward. Modeled behavior "sticks" in our minds for a while and must be "unlearned" over time - just as it was learned. Truth embraced today will multiply. In time, as truth is worked "into" our lives, it will begin to be manifest in the words we speak "out" of our lives and actions follow words. Just sayin!

Follow the Pattern

What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. 

(2 Timothy 1:13-14)

May I ask what you 'keep safe' or 'guard' in your life? If you are a parent, it is likely you may have answered that your primary focus is to keep your little ones safe, harboring them against all harm as much as possible. If you are the owner of a company, you may say you are working hard to keep 'safe' that investment you made into that business and all the employees you have working within it. If you just got a brand new car, you might just admit to parking further away from the front door of the store because you want your car to be 'safe' from scratches and dings for as long as possible. We 'guard' or 'keep safe' a lot of different things in our lives, huh? Some are significant others, while others are things. Either way, there is a lot more attention paid to that which we desire to keep safe than to the people or things we really have no interest in protecting, right? That which is protected requires our attention. If we are to keep this 'good deposit' we have been entrusted with as we came into this life with Christ Jesus safe, we need to GUARD it against all things that may encourage us to just let it drift away.

Sound teaching creates patterns of behavior in those who adhere to that teaching. It is the reason we 'teach' anything - to see that pattern of behavior created in the lives of those we are instructing. God gives us the very best teaching in his Word with the desire that it creates patterns of behavior that will not only keep us safe, but that will keep others safe around us. Guarding that teaching - that 'good deposit' of 'patterns of behavior' we are to learn to walk in - this is partially our responsibility, but we also have the Holy Spirit in our lives to help 'guard' those truths. What would you identify as some of the 'good deposit' God has made in your life today? This may be a little harder question to answer than you may think because we aren't usually accustomed to 'recounting' what gets 'put into' our lives. We might for a moment in time, but then to actually go back and look at the books, so to speak, is not really as 'practiced' of a pattern for us. If we want to be sure we are 'guarding' the right stuff and not letting it get away from us, we need to pay attention to these things!

Patterns of behavior are rehearsed. They don't qualify as a 'pattern' if they aren't used over and over again. This is why we have a pattern - to guide us in making the same thing over and over again. If we want to have the godly behavior we learn at the feet of Jesus each day to become patterns within our lives, we have to do more than pay them casual attention. We need to allow the pattern to be established in our lives. This is like us allowing the creator to draw the pattern. Then we begin to 'trace the outline' of that pattern over and over again until we have seen the outcome of the pattern produced. This 'repetitive' action of going over and over the patterns God gives us to follow is what helps the behavior to develop. The behavior that God desires becomes a patterned behavior - the outline is there, and we adhere to it. When we veer from the pattern, we observe 'deviated behavior'. The 'thing' produced is a variation of the desired product. I know this because I have sometimes cut off little pieces of a cardboard pattern I use to trace outlines on wood I am about to cut. When I cut the tenth one with all those slight deviations in the pattern, the tenth one is significantly different from the first!

If we want consistency in our walk with Jesus, it begins by allowing the right pattern to be created within us. Then we allow that outline of behavior to be repetitively followed, not affording any opportunity for deviation at all. When we adhere to the pattern, the behavior will be consistent. Whenever we allow deviation or 'sloppiness' in following the pattern, we don't do as well with our consistency! Just sayin!

On the hook?

There are times when my BFF says something and I fake being 'hurt' about whatever she said - like walking away with head hung low, sagging my shoulders, or just putting on a pout. It is all in jest, but there are times when we all say or do things that really hurt another. We may not intend it, but the words come across curtly, the actions seem a little too rehearsed and stiff, or the response just doesn't match the moment. What happens next is critical. We can internalize the hurt so it does us harm, or we can externalize it in a way that harms another. Another option is to learn to actually recognize the offense as an opportunity to grow and to solidify the relationship.

Overlook an offense and bond a friendship; fasten on to a slight and—good-bye, friend! (Proverbs 17:9)

There are definitely times in life when an offense seems just too significant to overlook - there is just something about that offense that makes you think it is "justifiable" to remain angry with someone, or to perhaps even break off the relationship. When we overlook an offense, we are actually bringing a "bond" to that relationship that is like super glue. When we "fasten onto" an offense, we are taking the risk that the relationship will be harmed by that action. To overlook something means more than that we don't take notice of the offense - sometimes we notice, but we don't have to react to it. It carries the idea of not taking time to consider that offense over and over again - we don't rehearse it repeatedly. Ever been in a "heated" discussion with someone, only to have them bring up something you had done years before? People who are "holding on to" offenses are like that - they have an ability to recount the failure of the past over and over again.

The meaning of this word also carries the idea that we extend a pardon - the person who is offending us gets a "buy" as it comes to the offense. For many of us, giving someone a "buy" when they offend us is conditional - if the offense is minor, we might extend the pardon, but if it is more grievous, we hold on for dear life and don't want to 'let them off the hook'. One thing reiterated in scripture is that God is not conditional in his grace - he extends it even before we realize we have need for it. When we fail to take notice of the offense, or extend that pardon when it is least deserved, we are bringing a bond in that relationship that is not easily broken. That simple action on our part serves to unite us in relationship. It brings a connection between the two parties that helps the relationship be twice as strong as it was prior to the extension of that mercy. The important thing is that we learn to look beyond the "slights" in behavior that we often have a tendency to "latch onto", but which really deserve to be overlooked.

None of us needs to go through life being the doormat in a relationship - letting others just walk all over us and leave us covered in dirt! There are times when an offense is egregious - it is glaringly bad or wrong and needs to be dealt with in a fashion that indicates the significance of the offense! For example, being pulled over by a police officer because you are changing lanes without use of your turn signals may warrant a warning instead of a ticket. We need to be able to express the way that the action of another affected us - without attacking that other individual - not just give them the cold shoulder. Then we need to let that other person go - not holding them in a place of "owing" us, but allowing God to take that person into his hands for whatever action he feels may be warranted.

There are "little things" in relationships that become "big things" - all because we fasten onto those things more importance and energy than we should - focusing on them, rehearsing them, not being willing to overlook them. The reminder to us today is to learn how we might overlook the slights in relationship. Most of the time, the slights are really done without malice - they are unintentional and often worthy of a 'warning' more than anything else. When we learn to focus less on those and more on the person, loving them unconditionally, it is amazing how little those small things will really matter in the end. In fact, we will find the little things that used to be big things to us have really become building blocks upon which that relationship grows stronger and stronger. Just sayin!

Tending the lawn

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."  (Jim Elliot)   This is truly a "deep" and "profound" observation on this clergyman's part.  To give what we cannot keep is more of a struggle than one may at first imagine. Silly as it may be, we often hold onto practices much like we hold onto things in our lives just because it has been the way we have always done things.  The defining moment comes when we actually realize we cannot get different results while doing exactly the same thing repeatedly, especially if those things are what we are counting on to somehow make us nearer, or more acceptable to God. We do a great deal to "give our best" to God, but even if we repeat the steps over and over again all we give is "our best".  I would much rather give to God what I am not able to give myself - no matter how hard I try!  Grace is something I cannot give myself - it is a gift freely given by him, but which makes all we bring to him in return all that much sweeter!

Therefore, now no condemnation awaits those who are living in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King, because when you live in the Anointed One, Jesus, a new law takes effect. The law of the Spirit of life breathes into you and liberates you from the law of sin and death.  (Romans 8:1-2 VOICE)

Mr. Elliot also observed, "God always gives his best to those who leave the choice with him."  As long as we are the ones determining what it is we "think" will make us "good enough" to enjoy closeness or nearness with God, we will always be settling for something less than what God requires.  If you have ever mowed the grass in a particularly rainy season, you know this illustration holds true. The grass looks even, well-tailored, for about 1-2 days.  Then in a matter of just a couple of days, there is a certain "unevenness" to the grass.  Give another couple of days and the thicker places grow at rapid pace, long blades protruding out at all angles.  As we mowed, it looked really nice.  Put that mower away and just sit back to admire the work of your hands - within short order, the "work of your hands" proves to be no match to the power of the sunlight and efficiency of the rain!  Your work just didn't "show" anymore - it was "overtaken" by the fact "untended" grass grows!

Grace puts a different "law" in effect in our lives.  It isn't us "mowing the lawn" of our behavior, attitude, or motives any longer. It is God tending that "lawn" of our lives.  He oversees the "tailoring" of our behavior until it conforms to the image of his Son, Jesus.  He guides the "grooming" of our attitude until it reflects grace, kindness, and the consistency of his love.  He "weeds out" the self-centered and self-seeking motives of our heart until all that remains at the center of our lives is him.  We cannot "keep" or "tend" the "goodness" of our lives on our own.  We need God's tending in order to truthfully realize a consistently "well-groomed", "perfectly tailored" heart, mind, and soul!  We "give up what we could not keep" in order to "gain what we cannot lose"!

All we "do" is never enough.  Grace isn't based upon "doing" - it is based upon what another has done and continues to do on our behalf.  It is like having the best of gardeners continuously working on your lawn, until there is no flaw, not one weed - lush, growing, and vibrant in every detail.  The truth of the matter is that forces will continuously work against that "purity" of growth within us.  We need someone constantly watching over us to ensure the growth is "even" (consistent).  Just sayin!

Where ya from?

Over the past couple of weeks I have been referencing this thing called "behavior" a lot.  If we don't think it matters, we are sadly mistaken.  We probably all know the adage, "Do as I say, not as I do."  In simply saying there is an inconsistency between what one says and then how one acts, we are setting up a standard contrary to what brings honor to God.  I have a little sign in my office, given to me years ago, which simply reads, "Every time you walk by the violation of a standard, you set a new standard" - profound insight indeed.  This is certainly important to me in my job since I am responsible for assisting people to adhere to the standards we are to operate within for our healthcare environment.  Those standards provide safe conditions for our patients and promote positive outcomes.  So, the standards matter - and every violation of a standard matters, as well.  What others observe in our "behavior" - good or bad - can actually set a "standard" by which they will pattern their lives. This is the "big deal" behind having our behavior match our words.

Dear friends, you are foreigners and strangers on this earth. So I beg you not to surrender to those desires that fight against you. Always let others see you behaving properly, even though they may still accuse you of doing wrong. Then on the day of judgment, they will honor God by telling the good things they saw you do. (I Peter 2:11-12 CEV)

Most of us have a little trouble thinking of ourselves as foreigners and strangers on this earth.  After all, we were born on this earth, learned to walk and talk on this earth, and we live out our days on this earth.  To say we "don't belong" or that we are not "native" to this earth is kind of strange, right?  To fully understand this concept being taught here, we must understand a deeper meaning of the word "foreigner".  You see, a foreigner is not produced from the place or circumstances in which they currently exist - they come "from" a different originating point.  In essence, what is being said is that when we came to Christ a new nature was re-created within us - something which did not originate on this earth, but came from heaven above.  Christ's nature becomes ours and we are now "living on earth", but are "from" a place of origin much different than this earth!  The earth is not holy - God's presence is a place of ultimate holiness.  The earth is not "made right" through the blood of Jesus - but we are!

So, we live where we were physically born, but we now live with a spiritual rebirth - our nature is changed and as such, it no longer reflects the nature we were born into.  As long as we continue to "dwell" upon this earth, we will have this struggle between the desires which are a result of human nature and the desire to live holy lives, honoring God by both our words AND our actions.  Since most of us "get" how a person is born into this world by "natural" birth, it seems logical we can conclude the possibility of what a "re-birth" in a spiritual sense accomplishes.  Birth is a starting place - we all begin at the point of birth. This becomes important for us because the place of "new beginnings" is at the place of our "re-birth".  The moment we are born (or reborn), we take in breath.  Breath is necessary for life.  In a natural sense, our breath is composed of what is in the air we take into our lungs. In a spiritual sense, the breath we take in is that of the Holy Spirit - for God "breathes in" his Spirit within us - giving us life anew.

Now it makes sense how we could be foreigners in a place we were once natives!  Our "native" ways of behaving are no longer the mode of operation for us - we have a new "breath" within which creates a desire to live "differently" - as though we were from a different place of origin (and we are).  The call is to let others observe us behaving according to the new nature - that which is energized by the Holy Spirit and which produces actions of "holiness" within.  Why?  A picture is better than a thousand words - what we see speaks louder than what we hear.  I am an observer of human behavior - always looking at how people posture, what their expressions are, and what they do with their eyes.  Why?  It helps me know if they are engaged!  It also gives me a clue into how they are doing at that moment.  A couple days ago, my best friend sauntered by my office and stopped in her tracks when she saw me.  Why?  I had my head resting on my arm, kind of laying on my desk.  This is not my "usual" posture!  I don't nap at work!  I had just ended a call and with all the other stuff which had been going on that same day, the particular details of the call almost made my head spin!  Hence, I laid it down a moment or two!

She observed my behavior and new it was not "normal" for me.  People are observers of our behavior all the time.  They almost always look to us to be consistent - and when we are not, it catches them by surprise!  I needed a "regroup" moment at that point - something I don't need too often, but definitely did that day.  It was about 60 seconds, but it was what I needed to just pull my thoughts together and move on.  In that small fraction of time, I was observed!  You never know who is watching and when you will be observed, my friends.  In reference to having our behavior being consistent with our new nature, this is critical to understand.  When we live so close to the "earthly nature" that others cannot observe the "new nature" coming through, we aren't being the instruments of God's grace he desires for us to be on this earth.  As we allow God's Spirit to guide our responses to life on this earth, we will reveal consistency.  Whenever we veer from allowing him to guide those responses, we run the danger of living quite inconsistent lives - not matching up to our new place of origin!  Just sayin!

Being like Jesus

Have you ever tried to be so much like somebody else it was almost kind of comical to watch this transformation?  During the era of Jimmy Dean's fame, boys were dressing with white t-shirts and blue jeans, trying to look like the "tough guy".  Women were trying to dress and act like Marilyn Monroe.  Later on, rock stars like Michael Jackson were on the scene, sporting a new kind of "hip" or "cool" - while young and impressionable kids attempted to master his "moon walk" and got the cool glove!  Now, no one wants to see me moon walk, so I won't even try!  I didn't then and I won't now.  Yet, down through the ages, regardless of the generation in which we lived, people found "models" of behavior or style they wanted to emulate.  To be honest with you, I tried to preach like one of my Bible College professors!  You might ask how that worked out for me and I'd have to be honest - I was a flop!  Why?  I was not made to teach in quite the same way he was - although we teach the truth, we have a different style all our own.  Nothing was more liberating that to learn I did not need to follow his "pattern", but could allow God to pattern his in me!

Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. (Romans 12:2 CEV)

Now, if we are patterning our lives after another brother or sister in Christ, the end result is probably not as bad as when we attempt to pattern our behavior after some of the more "secular" examples we have in society today.  Yet, even the best "Christian" example is still flawed - so to really understand how we are to act / behave, we need to go to the true source - Christ himself.  I think this is why God the Father allowed Jesus to take on human form - so we'd have a way to "pattern" our lives.  We see and do much better than we hear and do, don't we?  So, by giving us an example (a God with a Bod, to quote my pastor), we can associate with what our behavior should look like in our everyday dealings.

Clearly, our passage warns us strongly against emulating the examples we set before us in this world today.  Considering these words were written over 2000 years ago, I think it is kind of mind boggling to know they were concerned with examples back then, especially since those examples had just seen Jesus walking on this earth in person!  In every generation, we have chosen wrong examples by which we pattern our lives.  In every circumstance, we have more than one choice of how to respond.  In choosing wisely, we come closer to the example Christ emulated for us while here on this earth.

So, in order to understand "how" we are to avoid being like an example which is not a good one for us to follow, we need to understand the "right example" a little better.  If we behold the right stuff, we eventually reveal the right stuff.  What we focus on determines our course of action - the direction we take when we finally do step out. According to our passage, our actions are determined by our mind - thought patterns put together until they produce some sort of action.  Thinking on this a little, you might just conclude if you could just think on the "right stuff", you'd consistently "act" the right way. I think this is over-simplifying it a little.  

The mind is a complex thing - not fully understood by us and definitely not even used to the capacity or potential it has.  In fact, if you study humans long enough, you will find the theory put forth stating man uses only 10% of his brain.  Albert Einstein and psychologist William James were both cited as starting this myth about human brain use. Most of the scientific community will tell you that although we may not fully use every brain cell we have, the brain is complex and even the slightest "infarct" or "break" in conduction of nerve activity can cripple a person's intellect, speech, vision, etc.  The truth remains evident, though, in the activities of human beings - we don't use our brains quite to the capacity God intended for their use!  Sometimes we get pretty far off from what he intended for us!

The key to living right is the right use of our minds - in maintaining the right focus, taking in the right input, and processing the right matter.  In other words, what goes in will eventually come out, so put the good stuff in!  We have to let God change any way we think which is imperfect, self-determined, or just downright foolish.  If we are committed to having his mind become ours, we will be more successful in consistently revealing a positive example of his love and grace in our own lives.  This is the purpose of our passage today - not to tell us to "NOT" conform, but to conform to the "right stuff".  When we begin to adapt our thinking to his, by changing our focus, we soon begin to see our behavior adapt to the way he desires for his kids to behave.  Just sayin!