Farmyard Insights
By Glenn Edwards
Keys to Relationships:
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, on my father's grain and dairy farm, I was isolated from many relationships, as we lived 9 miles from town. In those days, we only went to town for groceries once a week, usually on Saturdays. I began to ride the school bus in First Grade, and it was an hour in the morning and an hour after school. As was the case with many farm kids, I tended to be a little shy, and I found relating to others difficult for me. I did not know that I was part of a liberal experiment to remove God from my school, as our teachers had been praying with us every morning. When we acted improperly, our teachers sat us down and spoke to us about what was right and true, and how our behavior affected our conscience. In Christianity, the conscience plays a big role, as to offend another person, means we have also offended God. Some years ago, a campaign to promote “What would Jesus Do?” became popular.
So, what would Jesus do?
Jesus Loves as His very nature is Love: In our contemporary society, where secular liberalism has emphasized individual rights, we have lost sight of the need for us to lay our lives down for our family members, our friends, and our neighbors.
Jesus has asked us to pick up our cross and follow him: To love as he loved. He never said, “If it feels good, pick up your cross.” Let’s face it, if you are alive and breathing, you have feelings, however, we are admonished not to let these feelings run our lives. The mark of maturity shows up when we persevere, we embrace hard work, and we love as Jesus loved.
To Behave as Jesus does: I have heard Integrity defined as, “A rigid adherence to a code of behavior.” It is the ability to let our Yeh be Yeh, and our Nay be Nay, and to swear to our personal hurt to maintain our integrity. Our God states that he never changes, and we can count on this fact. We are exhorted to define who we are and then stand firm in our convictions to be clear about our commitment to follow closely after Jesus. The liberalism of our time likes to talk about “situational ethics,” and not the laws of our Almighty God. But God’s Word tells us life is about truth and evidence, not just some made-up narrative that makes me feel good. We are tasked with the job of finding out how God feels about a situation and then lining our feelings up with God’s feelings.
To do what Jesus would do For Me is to “Hear & Obey”: Jesus stated that he only did what he saw His Father God doing and thus was about His Father’s business. Jesus knew the importance of pulling aside from the busyness of the day to commune with His Father. We need to learn to do the same.
In short, all relationships have varying levels of intimacy, from casual acquaintances to the deeper love of a close friend, or family member. For our purposes, I am defining intimacy, as “In-to-Me-see.” The more transparent and vulnerable we become, the deeper the level of intimacy that is experienced.
Learning to do relationships like Jesus would do, brings a spring of life to our inner being. There are many blessings from walking with Jesus and communing with Him daily.
Choose to do life on purpose, with the belief that Jesus never fails. (I Corin. 13:8)
Insights from the Farmyard for you today.
Be Blessed.
Glenn Edwards
