Friday, December 07, 2012

Advent Interests

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Phil. 2:3-4

Ben read these verses tonight while I tried to keep the girls from distracting him. Mike had a work event and so for "Advent time" I was on my own. We talked about those verses and what they meant to Ben and I made myself go back and read them later. 

Those verses pack a punch. In so many ways, every day we look out for our own interests. Everything I do is not done with humility. I fall easily to the draw of selfish ambition, even in wanting my children to learn their lessons faster, require less clean-up, be quieter and kinder so I don't have to intervene. Sometimes even my parenting attempts to make them "good" are about making my life easier, instead of teaching them that the source of goodness is outside themselves and they must come to Him to find even a drop of goodness to carry them through each day. 

I hope as the Advent season progresses that I can gift people with less of me and more of Him.

2 comments:

Anna said...

Thank you. At the in-laws this weekend at this is just what I needed to hear:)

bafferly said...

Thank you, Rachelle. As you commented on Aaron's writing about Lincoln, "These lessons apply to all of life." Just so does your insightful post apply to this senior in Nova Scotia just as much as it does to the young mom in Michigan.

I'll join with you in seeking to gift people with less of me and more of Him.

XOXO Bev