SIN!!
(Noah mad because he didn't get what he wanted)
Is this the way I look to Christ when I don't put off the old self and put on Christ?
The verses I am deeply dwelling on lately is from Colossians 3:8-9, 12-13 and Proverbs 15:1. As I studied the book of Romans with my mentor the thing that seem to come out of that quite often is the concept of "putting off the old self and putting on Christ". Again now as we are working through a different study it continues to come up. (I guess I'm a little hard headed and have to be reminded often). The Colossians passage reads: Put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another. ...Put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another...even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. I find that I struggle with anger and wrath quite often with my children, and maybe even filthy language out of my mouth in that the way that I talk to them sometimes is a little condescending. I try to teach them that in everything we do we are to glorify and honor Christ. So on one hand I'm trying to teach them the right way and yet on the other hand my example teaches them the opposite. It is so hard sometimes to not allow those ugly sins to creep up and out. But that is what God requires of me: put off the ugliness and put on beauty-Christ. I am working on walking in the verse "A soft/gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Remembering that my response to them should be soft and gentle is where I find myself. Sometimes I'm quick to speak and it comes out harsh. God continues to teach me everyday as each child has their issues or bad day by reminding me of putting off anger and wrath and filthy language and be loving and kind toward them and be merciful toward them. Another thing I've actually learned this week and have begun to recognize is bitterness comes in when they are struggling and not obeying and not loving each other and their attitudes are disrespectful. Just this week I had to push away the bitterness that was trying to rear it's ugly head when my child was arguing with me and I'm trying to get everybody to my friend's house. I had a dr.'s appointment and new I needed to leave at a certain time. Because I was struggling with this child the time I left was much later than what I wanted to leave. On a normal day I would have been okay and made it right on time or within 15 minutes. We ran into a traffic jam on the way and therefore I was 20 minutes late and could not be seen that day and had to reschedule. As I was leaving the office and got in the van and headed home I just sat in silence and dwelt on the Bible study I had that morning on bitterness. On occasion I would have gotten upset and allowed bitterness to come into my heart towards those involved in causing us to be late and let it all out. That moment it would have been Paul probably getting to hear me rant and rave about what should have happened and we wouldn't have been late. Instead on this day God prepared my heart for what was ahead. My choice then was after getting into the van just sitting quietly (as he rants and raves) and meditating on what God was teaching me. Now since then it has had opportunities to come up again. As I have worked through this study with my mentor we are learning that we constantly need to look in the "mirror" and do some soul checking and making sure we are reflecting Christ. As I have now stopped and taken a look this week into my soul mirror I see that I have definitely not put off some of those ugly things. I do thank God for those moments I see where I have put on Christ, but there are so many other areas that still need working on. I will always be in the process of sanctification. I'm just a little impatient sometimes and want change to occur quickly. It doesn't always work that way. I pray that God will continue to help me overcome those areas I'm struggling with by continuing to place His Word daily in my heart to help me keep my soul in check.
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