Wade in the Word

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about “appreciation.” It seemed like every time I turned around, I was hearing things like …

“I so appreciate you.”
“I appreciate this so much.”
“Thanks for doing that, I really appreciate it.”
It started to seem like a buzzword; just a knee jerk reaction. Something we just say but do we really mean it? I began asking myself when someone says, “I appreciate you,” why does it sometimes leave an empty feeling? So I began researching this word, appreciation. I did a word search to see what the Hebrew word for appreciation was. To my surprise, I found that according to one Jewish rabbi, there is no such word in the Hebrew language. You’re probably wondering why? Well, it’s because the idea of trying to express how much you appreciate something or someone by mere words is too shallow and incomplete.

Here is another real life experience that conveys what I mean. Not too long ago friends invited my family to go on a bicycle ride along the canal and stop for ice cream. My wife rode to the meeting spot on her bike while I drove the girls and our bikes in the car to meet them.

When I arrived my wife was exhausted from the ride and a bit frustrated because she didn’t ask me to check her tires and she realized half way there that the tires were really low on air. I told her not to worry that we would find a gas station along the way and that this was just a minor set back. I realized, when we put Ella in the bicycle seat on back, that it was a major set back because now they were literally riding on the metal rims. As we approached a steep decline on the canal and I heard the “vroom vroom vroom” sound of the rear tire on the pavement, I began to get really nervous. When I saw Amy put one hand in the air and yell to Ella, “Put your hands up and pretend we’re on a roller coaster,” I shouted, “You need to slow down and be careful!!!” Amy yelled back to me, “Hey, I’m riding on faith, literally!” As we got to the bottom of the hill I said, “Amy, we are going to need to stop at a gas station to get air in your tires right away.”

But being a Sunday evening, we were concerned that we might not find a place to get air for the tires. So we broke away from the group, told the other families not to worry, and went in search of a gas station with an air hose. In order to get off the canal and up to the main road quickly, we had to trail blaze up a steep wooded hill along a make shift footpath. Ella was still seated in the bike seat and Amy was pulling the bike up and I was pushing on the back of Ella’s seat while dragging my own bike up the path. We were never so happy to see a main road. Unfortunately, all the nearby service stations were closed … not to mention that most stations don’t leave their air hose out for the public to freely use these days. By this time, we were both exhausted and all we could do was go back on the canal and catch up to the group. Hoping, that the tires would hold out and that one of the bike shops along the canal might have an outdoor air hose.

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Dear Wade in the Word Readers,

I’d like to take this time to express how grateful I am to all of you! The way that you have supported my blog is heart filling. I so value all your comments and by them I am challenged to grow more and more in the wisdom and knowledge of the Word of God. So many of you have been transparent with your thoughts and the insights you have shared are not only a blessing to me but to others as well. For this, I am truly thankful and reminded of this verse from Colossians 3:17. In whatever you do, whether in word or deed do it all in the name of The Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Keep me in your prayers, it is my deepest desire to continue to make this blog engaging and motivate people to search and study the Bible for themselves. And, even more, to apply The Word of God to their everyday living. My prayer and hope is that all my readers have been encouraged and challenged to shape their lives after Jesus. As the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in this body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I’d like to encourage you to take a few minutes to reflect on a posting that has encouraged you, challenged you or got you thinking in a new way. I welcome you to share your reflection by sharing a comment. For example –

Out of the Mouth of Babes encouraged me by ….

I was challenged by The Lord’s Mercies Are Fresh Every Morning because …

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made got me thinking in a new way …

I look forward to reading your thoughts!

P.S. I invite you to subscribe to my blog and receive an e-mail notification whenever there is a new post.

CREATED BY GOD
Picture a dot on the end of a needle; that’s how small you were when we were created by God. Inside that dot is all the DNA coding for who you are: your eye color, hair texture, finger print pattern – just to name a few- and it even includes your personality. What’s your personality like? Are you more open? Conscientious? Outgoing? Agreeable? Aggressive? Self-centered? A combo of a few? Whatever your personality, you are God created. God created our innermost being: our thoughts, feelings, convictions, beliefs. King David came to know this and wrote in Psalms: Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother’s womb. I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing. You knew me thoroughly. Psalms 139:13-14

There is a lot of discussion around personality and personality traits in both the secular and Christian world. I was explaining to my wife about my research around personalities and the different personality traits like aggressive and self-centered. My wife asked me if personalities are created by God, are you saying He created people to be self-centered? This is what I shared with her, “of course not …”
When God created us, He created an awareness of self and a desire to care for yourself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church and we are members of His body. Ephesians 5:29-30

In the beginning, when God created man, he was perfect and his personality traits were disciplined. They didn’t become undisciplined until man disobeyed God. As a result sin entered the world and our God given personalities became corrupt. A desire to care for yourself became a desire to care only about yourself … Self-centeredness. Whatever good we see in our personalities is of God …. Whatever bad we see in ourselves is a result of our sin nature. So what are we to do? Can we change our personalities?

Well, have you ever heard the expression “Can a leopard change its spots?” I’m sure most of us have. I believe the same thing applies to our personalities. They are a God given trait and any attempt to change them is impossible. Just like it is impossible for a leopard to change its spots. Spots are what make a leopard unique and we should embrace the unique personality that God has given us. But we can’ t stop there. We also must deal with the undisciplined side of us. As I put it, “we can’t change our personality but we can change our methods.”

GIVEN FREE CHOICE
You see, God gave you and me the ability to choose. From the very beginning Adam and Eve were given a choice between choosing the tree of life or the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Genesis 2:16-17
Our new birth in Christ is the method in which God conforms us into the image of His son, Jesus. But as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even them that believed on His name. John 1:12. God has given each of us a unique personality but without Christ it’s undisciplined. God has made us all unique down to our fingerprints. But those of us that are in Christ have a new nature. Our new nature allows us to change our methods. Those of us who have accepted Christ as Lord and Savior are not to copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12:2

Here is a recent example of what I mean by not changing your personality but changing your methods. I was driving through Brooklyn, New York at 12:30 pm. At this time of the day it is not considered to be rush hour traffic, but you could of fooled me! It was bumper to bumper for miles. A fifteen minute drive took an hour and a half. If you left a space of two feet between you and the car in front of you that was too much. Someone will now cut you off and cut in front of you. So for me to reach the Holland Tunnel and leave New York City I had to become an aggressive driver. Just ask my wife, she’ll tell you that I don’t have an aggressive personality. But you would not have been convinced by my method of driving that day. My driving had to change in order to navigate through China Town and get to the Holland Tunnel. Any passive type of driving would have caused even more of a traffic jam or possibly an accident. If any of you have ever have driven in New York City you know exactly what I’m talking about. While I don’t have an aggressive personality, I do have a humorous one. So it didn’t surprise my wife when I said with a smile, “Just funnel into the tunnel, people,” as drivers are impatiently blowing their horns, yelling, and using not nice hand gestures as eight lanes of traffic have to merge into two lanes to go through the tunnel.

EMBRACE THE PERSONALITY GOD HAS BLESSED YOU WITH

Knowing God is the first pillar in knowing yourself. God knew us even before our birth and each of our personalities is as uniquely different as our finger prints. I am called to glorify Jesus with my God given personality. Our different personalities is what makes the body of Christ so unique. While our personalities are predetermined, our methods are not. Everyday each of us are presented with choices. Remember, we all have the ability to choose. What I have learned in writing this post is God has placed inside all of mankind’s personality the gift of free will; from babies to adults, we desire to choose for ourselves. As for me and my family I choose to serve The Lord. Joshua said it best when he spoke to Israel: But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15. Don’t allow your personality to get in your way. Let your methods be to always trust God and to obey His word.