We have lots of kids in our home, and with lots of kids comes lots of curiosity and fun projects. We’ve created clay volcanoes and watched the baking soda and vinegar concoction spew out. We’ve piled books high on eggshells to test their strength. We’ve put endless amounts of stuff into water to see which floats and which sinks. We’ve built simple levers and pulleys and cranes to see how they work. We’ve dissected fish and a myriad of other animals to understand how they were created.
But one of my favorites was a little ant farm. It started with a clump of dirt and some tiny ants. We watched these ants go immediately to work. They worked endlessly to build a tunneling system and to move food. It did not matter the time of day; they were working. It was exhausting just watching them. Such doers, those ants.
And those ants really got to me. I saw myself in them. I, too, had become an endless doer. I woke up every day asking myself what needed to get done and that was my focus. I had lots of mouths to feed, lots of errands to run, lots of laundry to do, lots of people counting on me. But in all my doing, I wasn’t becoming a better person. I wasn’t growing in my faith. Actually quite the contrary. My productivity was through the roof, but my heart and soul were aching. I had lost sight of me, the people I was doing all these things for, and most importantly my bond with my Heavenly Father.
I started asking God to heal that ache in me, to show me how He wanted me to do life because the way I was doing it felt empty and hollow.
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Free MP3Listen NowI landed in Ephesians 4 and 5 one morning…and His words to me changed everything.
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
5: 1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
His words seeped deep into my soul. God wanted my life to reflect Jesus. He was way less interested in all I could accomplish in a day and way more interested in how I showed Christ to the people in my life.
Chip brought this all together for me in his broadcast, Breaking Through Life’s Biggest Barriers: How to Overcome Personal Stagnation. He showed me God had a better question for me to wake up asking. Instead of asking what am I going to do today, I needed to start my day by asking, “Who am I going to become more like today?”
When I started my day focused on Jesus and how I could show Him to the people around me, it was crazy how that changed everything in my day. In the midst of my doing, in the midst of my daily routine and the decisions I faced, I found myself growing in my relationship with Christ. Peace and patience and love and joy began permeating my day. That one simple question was transforming my life.
Maybe it’s a question you need to ask as well: Who am I going to become more like today?
Written By
Edel Gunnink
Edel is a busy mom of five very active kids, wife to one very adventurous husband, and caretaker of one very spoiled dog. When she is not homeschooling her kids or accomplishing the many drives on her carpool app, she enjoys workout classes, long walks, a good book, dinner out with friends, and lots of traveling. She and her family have ventured to 31 states in their RV with plans to visit all 50 states and recently they experienced an amazing family trip to Italy. Before writing for Living on the Edge, Edel enjoyed her position as a public school teacher and then principal of a Christian school. She has a Bachelor of Arts from Boston University and completed her Masters of Education at Harvard University.
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