Learning to be Taught

Proverbs 12:1

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.”

I have never been one to love discipline, or enjoy correction. As a little girl, I was full of anger and I had a spunky, strong willed attitude. If my mom or dad asked if I wanted to be spanked, I said, “Go ahead.” I had no concept of respect, and no concept of a self controlled tongue. I was a spitfire, and my mom always said that for every word she spoke, I would give a thousand more. I never cared if I got in trouble, I just wanted to live the way I wanted to live, and act the way I wanted to act. I hated reproof, I hated correction, I hated knowing that I was in sin, and that I was wrong, and like this verse says, I was a fool. I really was the demon child that every parent prays against, but thankfully Christ intervened and set me free. As time went on, and I grew older, I began to realize how much I hated what I was doing. I didn’t enjoy throwing temper tantrums, I didn’t like being punished, I hated the way I felt, and I hated the way I was destroying my family. My mom did not deserve my fury, and my brothers and father, did not deserve such disrespect. I felt like a monster, and I so badly wanted to change. So what changed me? Romans 7:22-25, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” This verse led me to recognize that I really could be in control of the sin that was controlling me. It was my choice to relent against my mom and yell at my dad. But with the power of Christ living inside of me, I had the ability to gain the foothold in this fight, and allow the Lord to give me a renewed spirit. It was the the word of God washing over me, the character of Christ renewing my mind and transforming me to be a reflection of his image, that made me who I am today. Scripture was the key, because it reminded me of who I was supposed to be, and how I was supposed to become the person God created and called me to be. God traded my heart of stone for a heart of flesh, and took me from a girl who was unyielding and unteachable, to a woman who is yielded to the holy spirit, and willing to grow, learn, and be taught. It was quite the journey to get here, and I still struggle with being teachable, but God came rushing through my soul, and I am not who I once was.

Application: Tonight, I will sit down with Autumn, and ask her if there is anything in me that she believes I need to change, and I will bring what she says to the Lord, and ask God to yield me to his spirit.