I am currently reading the book, and doing a bible study with ladies from our church on ‘You and Me Forever’ by Francis and Lisa Chan. This book is rocking my world, and turning my view of marriage completely upside down.  As much as it’s a marriage book, I am also learning so much about God and about how he calls me to live. This post is in the Faith section and I will try to stay on that topic, although the things I am learning about marriage are mind-blowing.

Our little family is in the midst of yet another big change, and it’s affecting us and people around us in various different ways.  What I feel like I am learning in this time of my life is what God is asking ME to do.  How he is asking me to live, behave, talk, walk, write, basically everything. Not only is he guiding me along this path, but he is testing me in this area as well.  I am coming up against very difficult obstacles that are forcing me to face the question ‘are you able to live this out or just talk about it but not be able to authentically be the person I am asking you to be’ ‘Are you dying to yourself daily, taking up the cross and following me, or just talking about it and then falling into the devils traps?’ He is giving me challenges in my path that are showing me that sometimes I think I am doing a lot better than I really am.

What we are reading about in this book, and also what I am reading about in the bible is ‘Humility.’ A big, ginormous  pill to swallow, this one.

A modest or low view of one’s own importance, or humbleness.

Now in marriage, this is somewhat easy to understand (not to do, but to grasp) but what I am starting to realize, is how important this is to LIVE like in every aspect of our lives.  We should be striving to live like this to each and every person we encounter, live life with, and beyond.  That is the true call of what Jesus asks of us.  Not to just be humble to our spouses, but to be a humble person.

James 4:6-7 says: ‘God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favour to the humble’  So humble yourselves before God. Resists the Devil and he will flee.’

1 Peter 5: 5: ‘And all of you, serve each other in humility.’  Verse 6 says: ‘So humble yourselves under the mighty power if God, and in his good time he will honour you.  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.’

Now if being humble is putting others need’s above our own, are we living up to that is the question? I guess for me, its easy to do that to the people I love.  It’s natural to want the best for my husband, for my children and my family & friends.  But am I doing that for the other people in my life? Am I doing it for people who just pass through my life? That one, I don’t think I am quite ‘passing’ the test. This is the life I strive to live, but I’m not sure I am quite there yet if I would be brutally honest with you.  One thing to remember when talking about this word ‘humility’ is that it is NOT a description of a weak person. If we look at how God feels about humble people, I would say that there are much more blessings and rewards to those types of people.  Although society and our culture teaches us that this way of living is weak and soft, it is not.  This comes with a whole change in the way you view things to understand this concept.

I like to research topics, and also find practical ways to accomplish my goals, so I will share these goals with you.

1. Forgive Quickly. This is tough, it is our natural tendency to hold grudges and resentment.  Don’t do it, it only hurts you and it creates a barrier between you and your relationship with God.
2. Serve.  Francis Chan said in his book, make it your gaol to try to out-serve one another(your spouse he’s talking about but I challenge you to broaden the playing field to each person in your life) Look at who Jesus was.  He served people even when they didn’t deserve it.
3. Display Grace. I heard a great description of Grace the other day.  ‘When someone deserves punishment or just being punched in the face, Grace is when you do the opposite and serve them instead.’ That is CLEARLY not the biblical definition of grace haha its my modern-day version.
4. Accept your Wrong Doings. Take responsibility for your actions in situations, make amends where you need to.
5. Put others First. Challenge yourself to slow down and in every situation, stop and ask yourself if there is a way you can put someone else above yourself in that specific situation.

These are somethings I am trying this week, and I challenge you to do the same.  We will fail, we will make mistakes but that is all part of life and this journey.  God will see the effort, he will honour where our heart is coming from as we try to become more humble, live with more humility and make every attempt we can to be more like him.