I need you!

Good friend, follow your father's good advice; don't wander off from your mother's teachings. Wrap yourself in them from head to foot; wear them like a scarf around your neck. Wherever you walk, they'll guide you; whenever you rest, they'll guard you; when you wake up, they'll tell you what's next. For sound advice is a beacon, good teaching is a light, moral discipline is a life path. (Proverbs 6:20-23 MSG)

There are certainly those in society today that lack the good advice of a father (or a father who actually listens to any good advice) and the wise teachings of a mother (or a mother too caught up in herself to actually listen to others). Perhaps father or mother is actually absent from the scene - or simply totally not involved in the life of their children. Worse yet is that the parent was present to teach, but what was taught was continual abuse, absolute neglect, or total mistrust. Society today has not done a good job of representing the role of father and mother. There are homes torn apart by all kinds of selfish influence - leaving damaged children in their wake, kids wanting for this type of wise counsel and solid direction in their lives, but finding nothing of the sort.

It is heart-warming to recognize that God "sets us in families", many times simply to re-parent us where we have been parented poorly in the first place. That family he sets us in is our local church - an assembly of other believers, much like ourselves who draw strength from one another and grow in the graces of Christ right alongside the other. Within the local church, he brings us face-to-face with others who will help us walk this out on a daily basis - individuals who will invest in our lives. According to our passage today, we are to wrap ourselves in the teachings of our parents - allowing them to guide us, guard us, and tell us what to do next. If we have lacked "solid" parenting in the natural sense, we must focus on our "spiritual" parenting within the community of Christ to guide, guard, and assist us in our walk.

Our spiritual family is often the path by which we learn the meaning of true love and unconditional acceptance. It is often the place where we come to recognize the strength of open arms, the infusion of value that a positive word brings, and the emotional healing of an accepting nod of approval when words just aren't necessary. Our spiritual family is a refuge for us - a place of growth. No wonder God makes such an awesome provision for us by placing us in the local church and within close-knit relationships! There are three truths I'd like to elaborate on just a little. Our writer indicates that sound advice is a beacon, good teaching is a light, and moral discipline is a life path.

Sound advice - most of us would be quick to acknowledge that there is nothing more rewarding than to have received sound advice and to have acted on it. Sound advice is characterized as that which guides our action or conduct. Often, sound advice can be a warning designed to keep us from harm, or to redirect our course so that we avoid pitfalls along the way. It influences our thought and in turn, our actions. Good teaching has a similar function in our life with a subtle difference. Some of us have learned things throughout life that we need to be "re-schooled" about now that we are walking with Christ. We may have developed some pretty unnecessary actions and thought-patterns in our life experiences that we need to have exposed as self-centered, sinful, or just plain "dumb". The strength of good teaching is that it produces light - light gives exposure to that which is hidden. We find good teaching in those who are placed into our lives in our local church and other close-knit relationships. Heed their teaching well - whether it is in word or action - and see what the light will expose in your life.

Moral discipline is a little different - it carries the idea of being upright, ethical, and pure in our action. All action stems from thought - therefore, true moral action stems from true moral thought. Moral discipline is the desire and ability to keep the rules without being overly focused on the rules. Moral discipline is a life path - it is an understanding of the rules for right conduct and then the passionate pursuit of those rules that will produce that right conduct consistently in our walk. We cannot learn this kind of discipline alone - it takes a village! Therefore, we are placed into a family - to engage in this walk together and to hold each other accountable along the way. We each get a fresh start in Christ - including a fresh start on family. If your family was not "ideal" and the parenting you received was "less than perfect" - take heart. God has placed you where you will receive all you need for a life of godliness - you are placed into his family. Let's learn to turn toward the beacon of the good advice shared in the lives of those he has surrounded us with. We are each an example of God's love and grace in some manner - let's learn from each other as we grow in Christ! Just learnin!

Relearning those lessons?

If you love learning, you love the discipline that goes with it— how shortsighted to refuse correction! (Proverbs 12:1)

Once in a while, I take a little heat from my friends because I like to learn new things and relish a good 'how to' book or discovery while searching facts on the internet. I have a curious mind that is only satisfied when I have discovered a new fact - like taking something apart to see how it works, or discovering the name of a bug that crawls out of a hole in my back yard. The writer of Proverbs says that if we are the kind of people that love learning, then we will also love the discipline that goes with it. Most of us could say that we are open to learning new things, but does discipline REALLY have to be part of it? According to God, yes. According to me....uhm, no thanks!

The process of learning requires that we take in knowledge or a new skill through the process of being instructed or through some means of self-study. We go through a process of learning - it is usually quite systematic. Learning is seldom "instantaneous", although it can be. Sometimes we approach the learning we experience in our spiritual walk with the expectation we will get some "instantaneous" learning experience and then be able to move on. Honestly, I find that doesn't happen too often. Instead, we get those repeated learning opportunities. We get repeated exposure to whatever it is we need to learn - but have you noticed that somehow, for some reason, we don't take it seriously until we are in the midst of a really painful situation! We call this type of learning "behavior modification" - we engage in a behavior, it produces an "ill effect", and we recoil when we experience the effect. Do this long enough and you will eventually recoil from the very thought of even engaging in that behavior - your behavior becomes modified! Most of us need to be honest here and admit that we need some 'modifying'!

God doesn't want us to have to experience the "bad stuff" in order to "modify" our behavior, though. He wants us to embrace the process of learning - willingly, enthusiastically, and with a trust in the one who is doing the teaching - HIM. Learning is a process of first being able to take in the knowledge - having an open heart to his teaching is foremost. Then we must have open minds - being able to discover what truth he is revealing, because we are paying attention. To this, he adds that we need to have "hearing" - this is a combination of both an open heart and an open mind - we rarely just hear with our ears. It is this "hearing" that brings us to the place where we finally "know" the truth that is being revealed. Discipline is the type of training that corrects - it molds us or perfects our mental faculties enough that our moral character is affected by it. The passage points to the fact we need to couple learning with discipline. We could take that to mean that we need to be "disciplined" in our learning - and this would be one truth that we could adopt from this verse. Yet, the meaning God probably has in mind is that learning becomes the most effective when it includes elements of disciplined correction, or the perfecting of those things that need to be changed in our inward character.

The end of all teaching (as God sees it) is a greater awareness of just how much our "self" interferes with our character growth and then the embracing of that which will finally deal with "self" so that our character is changed. That means that if I truly love learning, I will whole-heartedly embrace the discipline or correction that comes along with it! I was always disappointed when my teachers would return a paper to me with a grade that suggested I had not "learned" the materials. Some students in the class would just accept that grade and go on getting that same grade throughout the entire semester. That "grade" made me try harder - study more, get another viewpoint on the material presented, etc. I guess that is why they gave the grade in the first place - to show us where we needed improvement. God doesn't use a "grading" system to show us where we need to embrace learning in our lives - but he does use the promptings of the Holy Spirit to show us where we are responding inappropriately, believing stuff that is dangerous to our moral development, or surrounding ourselves with things that will distract us from what is important. We would do well to learn to appreciate the "discipline" of learning! It provides an opportunity for our development that we'd never experience otherwise. Just sayin!

Perfect pitch

All Scripture is given by God. And all Scripture is useful for teaching and for showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching the right way to live. Using the Scriptures, those who serve God will be prepared and will have everything they need to do every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ERV)

While it is very important to remember all scripture is given to help us correct what is wrong in our lives, it is not to be used to beat people up with. The desire to use scripture to point out the faults of another is not what is intended here. The "pointing out" is really the job of the Holy Spirit - the helping another to learn part is where we come alongside and walk out that learning together.

Most of the time, we forget that learning is all about us walking out what we are given instruction to do. Having a hymnal doesn't equate to singing the songs correctly - especially if you don't actually read notes or understand rhythm or beat. If I have heard the hymn often enough, I may have a better chance of actually singing it according to how it is written, but the notes still mean very little to me. Why? I am not "schooled" in music.

There are a good number of biblical teachings I am not "schooled" in, but I am able to read them just like I could read the words of a song in the hymnal. The teachings don't have exactly the same meaning until someone helps me grasp the content of the teaching. This comes not only in instruction, but in example. When I hear the song and how it is supposed to be sung, I can "imitate" the song without really totally understanding a single note on the page. Sing that song often enough with me as it should be sung and I will eventually get a better understanding of the counting of beats and the meaning of the notes.

If you were to tell me to hit an F-sharp I probably couldn't even get close. If you were to hit that pitch yourself and then I were to "match" that pitch, I would eventually appreciate the tone of the note. What I needed was the example - the ability to hit the note was there all along, but I didn't appreciate the note as "matching" the F-sharp on the page until someone sung it for me. Christ was our first example of "perfect pitch". In turn, he showed his disciples how to imitate that "pitch". 

Now it is our turn to "match the pitch" in our own lives. We do this as a team - walking this learning and understanding together - following the examples we have been given. The more closely we listen to Christ, the more we are able to "hit the note" in our lives. Just sayin!