Do you ever encounter moments in your life where you want to ask the Father, "Really? Do we really have to deal with this right now? Aren't you even gonna give me a few days to tend my wounded pride or lick my wounds?"
That was my first reaction this morning as Beth Moore led me into the Word to a sensitive issue that come to my (and everyone else in the room's) attention just last night.
Let me explain.
We went to our landlord's house for dinner last night. To be honest, I didn't want to go in the first place because I just "don't click" with this lady. It probably has nothing to do with the day she said,"You've been studying Arabic for 5 months now and you don't speak it fluently?!"
Like I said, we just "don't click". Language learning happens to be a source of constant humiliation already without someone directly judging your progress with their broken English.
As we sat around chatting before the meal, we heard the same advice literally like 20 times, "You must practice Arabic with people to be good at it." This, of course, came after the interrogation of our schooling methods and on and on and on they went about learning the language. It would have been helpful the first time they mentioned, but by 437 millionth time, we were scrambling for a subject change.
Politics and religion ought to do the trick. And it did, until we were talking after the (yes, I must admit) delicious meal. As I'm trying to construct a sentence in Arabic at 9:30 pm, this lady interrupts me and says, "[that person] speaks better Arabic than you." Followed by her whole family nodding in agreement. Now, I know this is surprising to you, but that didn't really help my "not clicking" or bonding with her issue much.
In an effort to regain some lost pride, I spoke only in English for the rest of the night. Beth was gracious to recount and make excuses for me, when we all know that what the lady said was true, just the way she said it wasn't kind.
It was an icky situation because Beth and I have tried really, really hard not to make language learning a competition. But it's hard not to compare yourself to someone else when your landlord says something like "You suck at this thing you've been trying really hard at for 6 months" (So, she didn't say that, but that's what my heart felt like she said).
After we got home, I had started working through my feelings about the evening and had even asked Him to help me see her as He does. But it didn't take long for me to feel the need to watch tv and then read a book before bed; hence, leaving the things that needed to be dealt with for another time.
Oh but no, Father's got to bring it up first thing this morning - in a study of James of all places.
In Galatians 2:1-10, we see several leaders trying to figure out how to work together.
Moore writes, "Stand back and watch how many observers will try to nudge you into a competition with someone who fills a similar slot. The idea is that anything comparable is automatically competitive." She goes on to discuss comparison traps and, of course, makes us like...I dunno...deal with it.
Insert moment of, "Really? Do we really have to deal with this right now? Aren't you even gonna give me a few days to tend my wounded pride or lick my wounds?"
Yet, He loves us too much to leave us where we are!
The beauty of our Father is that he uses us in our strengths but all the more in our weaknesses and that He judges us on our obedience, not our performance.
That was my first reaction this morning as Beth Moore led me into the Word to a sensitive issue that come to my (and everyone else in the room's) attention just last night.
Let me explain.
We went to our landlord's house for dinner last night. To be honest, I didn't want to go in the first place because I just "don't click" with this lady. It probably has nothing to do with the day she said,"You've been studying Arabic for 5 months now and you don't speak it fluently?!"
Like I said, we just "don't click". Language learning happens to be a source of constant humiliation already without someone directly judging your progress with their broken English.
As we sat around chatting before the meal, we heard the same advice literally like 20 times, "You must practice Arabic with people to be good at it." This, of course, came after the interrogation of our schooling methods and on and on and on they went about learning the language. It would have been helpful the first time they mentioned, but by 437 millionth time, we were scrambling for a subject change.
Politics and religion ought to do the trick. And it did, until we were talking after the (yes, I must admit) delicious meal. As I'm trying to construct a sentence in Arabic at 9:30 pm, this lady interrupts me and says, "[that person] speaks better Arabic than you." Followed by her whole family nodding in agreement. Now, I know this is surprising to you, but that didn't really help my "not clicking" or bonding with her issue much.
In an effort to regain some lost pride, I spoke only in English for the rest of the night. Beth was gracious to recount and make excuses for me, when we all know that what the lady said was true, just the way she said it wasn't kind.
It was an icky situation because Beth and I have tried really, really hard not to make language learning a competition. But it's hard not to compare yourself to someone else when your landlord says something like "You suck at this thing you've been trying really hard at for 6 months" (So, she didn't say that, but that's what my heart felt like she said).
After we got home, I had started working through my feelings about the evening and had even asked Him to help me see her as He does. But it didn't take long for me to feel the need to watch tv and then read a book before bed; hence, leaving the things that needed to be dealt with for another time.
Oh but no, Father's got to bring it up first thing this morning - in a study of James of all places.
In Galatians 2:1-10, we see several leaders trying to figure out how to work together.
Moore writes, "Stand back and watch how many observers will try to nudge you into a competition with someone who fills a similar slot. The idea is that anything comparable is automatically competitive." She goes on to discuss comparison traps and, of course, makes us like...I dunno...deal with it.
Insert moment of, "Really? Do we really have to deal with this right now? Aren't you even gonna give me a few days to tend my wounded pride or lick my wounds?"
Yet, He loves us too much to leave us where we are!
The beauty of our Father is that he uses us in our strengths but all the more in our weaknesses and that He judges us on our obedience, not our performance.
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