One of the things I love about working with students is that almost every week there is at least one or two students that you get to have a real-life conversation with. Now every week I spend a lot of time building relationships with students and talking about their lives, but these conversations are different. These are the times when the real feelings, questions, or pains are brought into the open.
I talked recently in Impact about how every decision and action are like seeds that we are planting in the garden of our heart (I made sure it sounded less HGTV and Hallmark Channel when I explained it to them). When we make decisions we are slowly changing our heart for better our for worse. We have the choice to allow the Holy Spirit the open door to help our lives look more like Christ. I gave the students the opportunity to respond and decided whether or not they wanted to make the commitment to daily making decisions that would change their hearts to become a reflection of Christ.
After the talk, a student came up to me with tears in her eyes and began to tell me about her broken relationship with her mother. She feels ignored by her mother. She eats most dinners alone after her mom makes food for her and then heads into her bedroom. She was heart broken because she felt worthless to her mother.
I told her how sorry I was that she had to go through that. We talked about how we can't control other people's choices, but we can control how we respond. When we are hurt or attacked it's so easy to lash out. But, planting those seeds of encouragement and love will bring about healthy fruit, definitely in your own life and possibly in the lives of others.
It was a great reminder for me. I can't control what others do, but I can control my response. Do my responses plant seeds that will help me grow closer to Christ? Or will they lead to a cold and bitter heart?
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
- Luke 6:43-45
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Take an honest look at your heart, what seeds have you been sowing with?
Are you happy with the way your heart looks?
What would you like to change? How could you sow some seeds to transform your heart to look more like Christ?
This reminds me of a Charles Swindoll quote I have had posted at my desk for over 20 years:
ReplyDelete"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than the facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our Attitudes."
I love that quote, Faith. I agree with him. That's why it's so important to begin our day with Him in some capacity. Prayer, reading, listening to worship music, journaling or whatever else helps connect our hearts with His. When we connect our heart, our attitudes follow. Thanks for sharing this!
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