“If we’re going to become the women God wants us to be, we’re going to have to begin being consciously selective, which means we ask ourselves questions like: Is this the best use of my time, money, energy, and resources? Is this God’s highest and best for me? Is it the healthiest thing for my spirit, soul, and body? … Do my daily choices reflect my true values or am I taking the path of least resistance simply to avoid the hard work of making conscious selections?” by Donna Partow, Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be: A 90-Day Guide to Living the Proverbs 31 Life
Years ago when trying to sort out the question in my mind about “What would Jesus do?” I found myself hung up on the question in certain situations. There were things going on that I didn’t have a clue what Jesus would do because He never would have allowed Himself to get into the siutation in the first place.
Over and over again I tried to figure out, “What would Jesus do?” After several attempts of trying to figure it out I began to look at it from a different angle. In the process of studying the stories of Christ in our Bible study and looking deeply into the characteristics of Christ I soon found my new approach. I started asking myself after I did something, “what characteristic of Christ is that?”
Talk about bringing a conviction to my heart. If I couldn’t instantly name what I did, thought, or said as a characteristic of Christ I knew I had just been busted for wrong behavior. Indeed for me as hard as it was to try and name what Jesus would do I found it easier to label what I just did Christ-like or not. I even made a bracelet that had WCOCIT on it to remind myself to ask that simple question in all I did and said.
Too often we think that being a Christian comes to us the minute we arise from the waters of baptism as if it was projected to us by some type of osmosis. As much as we would like to believe otherwise it’s not that simple. It takes a conscience effort on our part. We need to stop and think about what we are doing. We need to ask ourselves some questions. It doesn’t matter if it’s the questions Donna has given us in her quote or ones we come up with ourselves.
One Christian speaker I listened to once referred to this as “accountability” questions. His recommendation was to make a list of questions and give them to the accountability partner of your choice to ask once in awhile. Taking on the challenge I wrote down my questions and picked my accountability partner. Too bad the list of questions never got to her. Hum, no wonder one of the questions on the list was “did you follow through with what you started this week?”
We question God, we question where we think earth came from, we question our spouse’s behavior and what are kids are thinking but we don’t question ourselves enough. We need to live intentionally especially in our Christian walk and that takes effort on our part. Some of that effort can come through the questions we ask ourselves. “Did I glorify God today? Did I walk in His will? Am I doing all I can to further His kingdom? Is that really a characteristic of Christ?”
We have checklists for our groceries and bills why not a checklist for our soul and spirit. All it takes is a simple inventory that will tell us where we are and where we are likely to go if we don’t pay attention. Its not a checklist to use as evidence against us but one to further our walk towards the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Walk, listen, and learn, it often starts with a question. “Where do I want to go in life?” Towards Jesus is my destiny of choice.
Our host today is Patricia on her blog, Typing One-Handed so you better get over there and there’s no question about this one you need to join in, its fun!
Years ago when trying to sort out the question in my mind about “What would Jesus do?” I found myself hung up on the question in certain situations. There were things going on that I didn’t have a clue what Jesus would do because He never would have allowed Himself to get into the siutation in the first place.
Over and over again I tried to figure out, “What would Jesus do?” After several attempts of trying to figure it out I began to look at it from a different angle. In the process of studying the stories of Christ in our Bible study and looking deeply into the characteristics of Christ I soon found my new approach. I started asking myself after I did something, “what characteristic of Christ is that?”
Talk about bringing a conviction to my heart. If I couldn’t instantly name what I did, thought, or said as a characteristic of Christ I knew I had just been busted for wrong behavior. Indeed for me as hard as it was to try and name what Jesus would do I found it easier to label what I just did Christ-like or not. I even made a bracelet that had WCOCIT on it to remind myself to ask that simple question in all I did and said.
Too often we think that being a Christian comes to us the minute we arise from the waters of baptism as if it was projected to us by some type of osmosis. As much as we would like to believe otherwise it’s not that simple. It takes a conscience effort on our part. We need to stop and think about what we are doing. We need to ask ourselves some questions. It doesn’t matter if it’s the questions Donna has given us in her quote or ones we come up with ourselves.
One Christian speaker I listened to once referred to this as “accountability” questions. His recommendation was to make a list of questions and give them to the accountability partner of your choice to ask once in awhile. Taking on the challenge I wrote down my questions and picked my accountability partner. Too bad the list of questions never got to her. Hum, no wonder one of the questions on the list was “did you follow through with what you started this week?”
We question God, we question where we think earth came from, we question our spouse’s behavior and what are kids are thinking but we don’t question ourselves enough. We need to live intentionally especially in our Christian walk and that takes effort on our part. Some of that effort can come through the questions we ask ourselves. “Did I glorify God today? Did I walk in His will? Am I doing all I can to further His kingdom? Is that really a characteristic of Christ?”
We have checklists for our groceries and bills why not a checklist for our soul and spirit. All it takes is a simple inventory that will tell us where we are and where we are likely to go if we don’t pay attention. Its not a checklist to use as evidence against us but one to further our walk towards the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Walk, listen, and learn, it often starts with a question. “Where do I want to go in life?” Towards Jesus is my destiny of choice.
Our host today is Patricia on her blog, Typing One-Handed so you better get over there and there’s no question about this one you need to join in, its fun!
1 comment:
Great post. Very thought provoking. Thank you :)
Post a Comment