Welcome to the December 19th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
The Story of My Week
We went to watch our son’s Christmas class performance.
In show biz, they would say "my son was born to play this role."
The performance had the wise men as part of it. It is believed that one of the wise men was a black guy.
As the only black kid in the class, the role sort of picked my son (smiles).
We could see this was something my son was proud to play.
As parents, we were proud to cheer him on.
As they matched onto the stage, it was clear he was looking out for his parents.
He was quick to wave at us once his eye caught us.
Despite all my numerous travels during the year, I am very happy that I was able to be part of all the events that mattered to my son.
My son doesn't need to know how much it might have taken for daddy to be there.
The important thing to him is that "daddy & mummy are here."
The biggest gift we can give our children at this stage of life is to show up as a family to every moment that matters to them.
Things I Learnt
1- Christians Without a Cause: Earlier in the week, I listened to a Christian in public life make certain statements that depressed me.
I was not depressed for myself - it was the impact it was having on his listeners.
The way I felt was not just because of the guy. But it was a culmination of similar statements made by similar Christians.
One thing was common - they were all practitioners of NLP and like aligned learnings.
I reached out to a mentor of mine who is a mature Christian and experienced in NLP.
Interestingly, this was something he had also noticed. According to him, some of the people that he took for the training had even turned away from the Church.
This begs the question of what they really believed in.
Speaking with the older mentor was refreshing to me.
A surprise from my conversation with him was that at a point, he thought he was the only one seeing the error that was creeping in.
According to him, everyone wants to be an influencer. A quick way to do it is to say things that offend presented as a new insight.
Many times, they are just incompletely thought-through ideas that cannot stand the test of the Truth.
Unfortunately, people are deceived under the guise of "shaking the table."
May God help us all to be true to God.
True to His Truth.
No matter the new knowledge we may add to our lives.
2-When Front Stage is not the Complete Picture: During the class performance by 6-year-olds, some of the students did recitations. They would go to the microphone stand, hold a paper and read it out.
After the performance, a parent whose kid did not do a recitation said "I am so looking forward to when my kid will read like that."
Fortunately, she was speaking with an experienced parent who knew the way things happen.
She responded "the kids were not reading from the paper. They were reciting words that they had been taught to memorize."
Her response reminded me of the need to keep focusing on what is important to me.
I can't let the front-stage performance of others minimize the best I bring into every day.
Their front stage may not be the full picture.
There may be something more to the whole picture.
Postscript
May you be reminded that God has made you stronger when you face overwhelming odds. May the Spirit of Jesus in your life be the confidence maker you need every day. Amen
Tata,
Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
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